STEP OUT OF THE EVERYDAY
AND INTO SOMETHING IMAGINED.
Artistic Alchemy is an ongoing creative collaboration between wearable artist and designer Shelley Novotny and photographer Amanda Anderson.
Together, we create immersive portrait experiences where wearable art, styling, photography, landscape and story become something you can step inside.
Sometimes it begins with a garment.
Sometimes with a place, a character, a photograph you've saved for years, a feeling you can't quite name, or simply the desire to become something different for an afternoon.
You don't need to arrive with the whole idea figured out.
Part of the alchemy is discovering it as we create.
THE EXPERIENCE
This isn't about stepping in front of a backdrop and posing for photographs.
We build a world around you.
Your experience may unfold among the trees, beside the water, in an unexpected outdoor set, inside a vintage bathtub, among mirrors, smoke, fabric, flowers or found objects.
It might feel ethereal. Wild. Romantic. Strange. Dark. Playful. Otherworldly.
Or something we haven't imagined yet.
No two experiences need to look alike.
MY PART OF THE ALCHEMY
Shelley Novotny
My work begins with imagining what the world could become.
I draw from my collection of wearable art, altered and vintage garments, handmade adornments, natural materials, found objects and unexpected pieces I've gathered over years of creating.
From there, I style and shape the visual story around you.
A garment may be altered. Pieces may be layered together. Something from the forest may become an adornment. An ordinary object may find an entirely different purpose.
Sometimes we begin with one of my existing pieces. Sometimes I create or alter something specifically for the idea.
I don't want you to look like everyone else.
I want us to find the version that could only belong to you.
THROUGH AMANDA'S LENS
Amanda Anderson Studios
Once the world begins to take shape, Amanda brings it into focus.
Her photography captures the movement, atmosphere, details and unexpected moments that happen when you stop thinking about having your picture taken and begin inhabiting what we've created.
The finished photographs become more than documentation of how you looked.
They become evidence that, for a little while, this world existed.
IMAGE CREDITS
Photography | Amanda Anderson Studios
Wearable Art + Creative Styling | Shelley Novotny
Featuring | Malerie Brill • Brianna Brill • John Johnson
Location | Forest + Fire, St. Germain, Wisconsin + Northwoods locations
Collaborations | Sapphire Lounge, Minocqua