#circusmag

being able to interview the *incredible* photographer + artist Elizabeth De La Piedra for CIRCUS’s third print issue was an absolute dream. we’ll be releasing the cover story online soon, but until then you can order your physical copy online here <3  photos by alexa viscius

makeup by jessica monzalvo

hair by jana marie hoeller

styling by cloe doherty 

—photo by Felton Kizer, styling by Sal Yvat, Makeup and Hair by Paloma Alcantar, Cover Design by Javier Suarez

It still seems like a dream, but it was only a few months ago that I went out to Los Angeles to produce the shoot for CIRCUS’ first cover story. It was so hard for me to keep under wraps that Ilse Valfre, easily the modern artist of the moment, agreed to be our very first cover star.

Ilse was humble, sweet and so, so gracious and it was an honor to write a story about a young creative (and feminist! and mother!) who not just worked endlessly to gain notoriety but changed the game of how to be a modern artist in a social media and money driven world.

You can read the cover story by purchasing Issue 001 of CIRCUS, but I did want to give a secret tidbit to our readers about the symbolism behind the cover image.

Ilse herself hails from Tijuana, Mexico and in midst of getting ready for the shoot she and our makeup artist Paloma, bonded over the fact they had family in the same small town close to the border. Earlier in the week I was panicking over finding a makeup artist since our previously booked one had cancelled (why does that always happen!?) and when I discovered Paloma’s work and we were working our scheduling we too realized we both grew up in Arizona, only about 30 minutes away from the other. 

It was a beautifully random connection of brown girls from all over coming together to each do what they love to do—and I wanted to symbolize that in the photo shoot. When we were shooting the last look I noticed Ilse had a family of potted cacti and succulents perched on her patio and I INSISTED (ie: demanded) that we incorporate a cactus in one of the shots. 

A cactus, for any girl from the Southwest (north or south of the border) is a symbol of home—the homes we grew up in, the homes our parents left to give us a better life, and with the convenience and popularities of potted plants and succulents—that home will continue to be wherever we make it and our heritage will never be left behind.

What happens when we team up with Carissa Lancaster of Kliq Studios and hit the streets of Pilsen? 

Magic. 

"In a similar way as to how Carrie Bradshaw and friends captured the 'if only I could dream' city wishes of starving women writers and fledgling fashionistas everywhere, Lena Dunham’s 'Girls' storyline seized the fermentation of desperation that oozes from all millennial twenty-somethings: we all are working to be somebody in a society that could care less."