New work + news! New new new!

Unveiling a brand new project, Dream Theater and giving y'all some fun updates!

Aug 12, 2022

HELLOOOOOO friends!

This month I’m sharing my new series, DREAM THEATER, with y’all ~exclusively~ on Substack, because in the true spirit of full moon chaos, I am…drumroll please…locked out of my Instagram account? And have been for a week. This is me 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓊𝓉 as locked out of my Instagram. So brave! #LockedOutOfInstagramPride

My manager was like, “this is a great way for you to test out if you really want to be off the grid” and you know what? I want to be on the grid! I love the grid! I posted the first picture from this new series the other day and immediately got locked out- now I feel like my baby is past its due date. My plight!

(it’s fine, I know some great folks at IG who are helping me, god bless. I’m learning patience, this is really not even a Thing, etc.)

First, news-

I have a collage in the small, niche, independent magazine TIME this month!!! Print and digital! It’s so important to support indie publications :) But really, what a damn honor to collage the cast and creator of Reservation Dogs, an amazing Hulu show about Native American teens growing up on a reservation, for such an iconic publication. It was so fun to watch the show and then make art about it- I love my job. PS- one of the covers this month (it’s a double issue) is Lorna Simpson’s collage of Brittney Griner- Lorna is a collage hero of mine, so this feels really special. When I taught kid’s art classes, we would always have a Lorna Simpson day where everyone would make their own hair collages based on her “Black Hair” series. I simply love her work so much.

I also documented the process of getting to the final collage in this reel, which I have bravely uploaded to Tiktok. Bon appetit!

@savanaogburn Here’s some pretty exhaustive BTS of my new work for @TIME! I’ve been making collages for years now, but I still frequently get in my own way in the early stages of making things, especially for big clients and projects I’m genuinely excited about. For me, creative resistance/blocks typically happen via a back and forth in my brain in which I’m trying to figure out how to make something unexpected and fresh while also trying to make it “look like me” (which is what clients hire for 99% of the time- a style they’ve already seen me do!). So for this project it literally took me sending @Mckenzie Mann like 7 truly heinous mock-ups and her saying something to the effect of “uhhh…no girl. Not this” and then looking at lots of old Monty Python animations for me to finally find a direction/composition I liked. Every project is a learning lesson and every single time I remember how many bad things I have to make in order to get to the Good One. So in the spirit of transparency and ~trusting the process~ here’s BTS ☁️🐎☁️ Also just saying- I feel like a true chump trying to make Tiktoks so please go easy on me! I do like how succinctly I can communicate my process via video though so I may keep doing them 😌

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-Soon, I’m going to officially announce some very accessibly priced portrait sessions here in LA. The idea is to offer folks affordable mini portrait sessions where you get to choose your backdrop, show up to the studio in a look you feel good in, pick your own fun accessories and props from my stash, and then have your picture taken by me. I’m *very* excited about this- it’ll be so fun to meet and photograph new faces, and to be able to offer my work in a bite sized way that will be super colorful and wacky. Keep an eye out!

-I’m also experimenting with the idea of adding a paid option for this newsletter. I’m thinking it might include exclusive, subscriber-only video content (think: me flipping through my archives/collage journal/scrapbooks and talking through them, true BTS videos, perhaps some sort of audio component). Tell me what you’re interested in seeing, and what would be worth a few bucks per month for you!

OK HERE ARE THE NEW PICTURES THAT I’M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT!!!

These were shot in Atlanta in March, before I moved. Long story short, my friend Ryan, who is an amazing model/writer/genius, pitched two shoot ideas to me, one where he was in drag, and one inspired by Tim Burton. I said “why not both at the same time?” And here we are! I asked Rebecca Diaz to style the shoot- she is an icon and a legend. She drove from g*ddamn Louisiana to work on this complete passion project, and I am so thankful. The clothes speak for themself here- they’re insane. Kalene Gentles ATE UP this Rocky Horror inspired makeup, Madison Millard gave Ryan the sculptural hair of my dreams, and my generous and crafty mom assisted.

I’m going to add some captions when I have something to say, but otherwise, ENJOY!

I had barely any plans for collage when I started prepro for this- I had a couple funky ideas (Ryan balancing on an eyeball, circus style, was one of them), but nothing set in stone. It was very much an experimental, f*ck around and find out type of shoot. Those always lead to the best, most interesting results for me. This particular collage was heavily influenced by Madonna’s *The Girlie Show* tour program from 1993. Feast your eyes.

Something tactile for the girls! I used a copyright expired playing card from the 1920s and some other playing card assets from the Met’s Open Access Archive.

I’m addicted to doing these beauty shots using an old macro filter. I also used this technique in *The Sveet Escape.*

Every bad bitch in history has a picture with her head under a cloche. Including the inspiration for this shoot, Leonor Fini, who said “I have always loved, and lived, my own theater”. That quote was the north star for this shoot.

Rebecca DIY’d this hair jacket inspired by Schiaparelli.

I made this whole tiny setup IRL and re-photographed it on my kitchen table. I’m going to make a BTS reel/Tiktok thing about it soon!

Thank you guys for looking- I’m so thrilled about these pictures and thrilled that I have so many lovely folks on Substack that will read my newsletters! Thank you for being here. <3

Savana Ogburn

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