"Strength While Wearing a Cone" is a physical mixed-media piece. It's dimensions IRL are 5in x 8in. A couple years back during one of my "Photo a Day"projects I started noticing cones everywhere. I eventually bought my own at the local hardware store and started asking models to wear them in my studio. As my "Strangers" series began I started approaching people and asking "Excuse me, can I get a portrait of you with a cone on your head?" This is one of those photos! I combined a digital photo from my ongoing "Strangers" series, found the frame at an estate sale, printed the image out on printer paper, wheat-pasted it, and then drew on the image with oil pastels. I then photographed it professionally in my home studio for it to live digitally in your wallet! --------------- About 4 months ago I started walking up to strangers on the street and asking the simple question, "Excuse me, can I take your portrait?" Since then I have interviewed and published 100's of stories of complete strangers. Somewhere along the way I wanted to see these photos come to life, so I printed them out on my home printer, made wheat paste, and glued them to recyled canvas and began drawing. This resulted in my first-ever body of work I'm entitling "Mixed Media". It's over 100 days of stories, 13 years of photography, and hundreds of drawings later that I have compiled some of my favorite pieces of people I met on the streets with no prior relationship. This is "Mixed Media"!