What’s up, Hive? I’m just dropping in for a quick holiday update since things have been so busy lately. We’re doing family visits tomorrow so that’ll be most of my afternoon and early evening. @caffetto will be closing at 4:00p.m., which is kind of sad. My beloved coffee shop has always been a bastion for the uptown misfits that either didn’t have family or didn’t want to be with their family. Post-COVID, it just hasn’t been the same. Earlier hours, tons of days closed throughout the year. I won’t turn this into a grievance post but I know @caffetto is on borrowed time with the surrounding gentrification.
Last year, just days before my birthday, I met Kyrie Koffin, a Minneapolis goth model who shares a birthday with me. Because of this, we decided it would be cool if we did a birthday twins collaboration and we were suppose to do one this year as well. It didn’t work out so we tried for Halloween, which we missed again. She had a little red riding hood outfit, but when we thought about it, it really would pass for Christmas as well. I contacted my friends at 300 Clifton and booked one night at the historic mansion. Kyrie will be my last shoot of 2022.
Well, technically, my last of the year was a few hours later when @vermillionfox met me at 300 Clifton for a shoot of our own. During the early days of Hive, she was incredibly active in her artistic pursuits and we’d shoot together just for fun. This was one of those moments. I bought her a plaid Christmas pajama set and we snuck down to the common areas of the hotel late at night to capture a few photos. This was one of my favorites, holding a Christmas cookie by the tree. It was a great nostalgic memory for both of us.
Lastly, I finished this pen and ink illustration of Krampus for the EOS blockchain. This was a project I was asked to participate in by one of the Pomelo grants team members. They’ll be giving away holiday NFT’s and they said I could draw whatever I wanted. @lovejoy got quite the laugh out of this considering how very different it’s going to be from all the other entries, but like he said in jest, “Well, they know you. They shouldn’t be surprised.”. All in all, it’s been a gratifying few weeks of creativity leading up to this holiday weekend.
