We have a superb creative collaboration on view Monday morning, an energizing start to the week pairing LA-based actress and cellist Kestrin Pantera and photographer Andreanna Arambula. The images come at a moment when Anne the feminist and international women’s rights activist has exposed her emotional and psychological struggle with my friend Taryn Andreatta’s ‘The Offering’.  See America’s Feminists Are Misquoted & Discredited By Our Daughters and also OSU’s Jennifer Lewis On Gender Balance, Submission & Women’s Power, written by a young woman grad student who supports Taryn’s creative project ‘The Offering’. 

Jennifer lifted me out of my emotional funk over Taryn’s belief in the “natural submission of women” — which I reject — as do these images from Andreanna Arambula. The Pantera-Arambula project is a superb idea that could energize creative collaborations around this theme of submission, a necessary psychological state that is usually part of creative mastery and self-development of both self and one’s chosen discipline.

I love these small-scale mashups (which this technically is not) among creatives.

Musician Kestrin Pantera writes about the ‘Bound’ project, the first in a series of projects in which different photographers choose a topic, shoot the editorial and — creative juices working — record an audio track for release with the photos:

My relationship with the cello is twisted, a constant push and pull between freedom and servitude— a trait many classical musicians share. I’ll feel tortured and enslaved; to practice harder, be more precise and disciplined, and then watch my identity disappear into the noble [hollow] label of “cellist.” At which point I’m like, “Bite me, cello. Bite me hard.”

Photographer Andreanna Arambula and I captured the following images to excorcise those tangled sentiments. When I saw the photos, I was inspired to record a classic tune about a girl dominated by her relationship. Of course in my version, she breaks free, chosing rapture over restraint. It is, in the words of my friend Eva, “reduced to the maximum.”

“Under my Thumb,” music & lyrics by The Rolling Stones, all parts by Kestrin: (Note Kestrin’s Sound Clouds link not currently active. Hair & makeup by Jeanine Gross.)

Following the link to photographer Andreanna Arambula’s website, she ends her presentation of ‘Bound’ with inspiring words that link to ‘el Sistema USA’ , the visionary global movement that transforms the lives of children through music. In its totality, ‘Bound’ is a Smart Sensuality women’s project in action, from start to grand finale. Love, love, love. Anne