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Ars Magna is Latin for great art. Ars Magna Studio is an adventurous portrait, wedding and destination event studio based in San Diego, California. We specialize in creating unique works of art that combine our clients' personalities and our artistic vision. We have enjoyed working with many exceptional clients whose enthusiasm, trust, and collaboration has helped fuel our vision and allowed us to embrace our own passion for life and art. Our projects and adventures have taken us to Mexico, Italy, France, Canada, Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Texas, and throughout the United States. We are also expanding and fostering relationships with other local artists through the creation of an annual gallery and book showing. The studio is seeking partnerships with other artists in order to increase awareness, development, and visibility of the local art community. And for fellow grammarians and word-lovers, ars magna is also an anagram of anagrams.

Jul 13 2011

Blisswork | Boston Wedding | Willowdale

It happened at their engagement portrait session, and I witnessed it again on their wedding day. Just near proximity to each other, and their demeanor changes. Lighter. Giddier. Literally starry-eyed. Beaming rays of sunshine at one another. Hand to God, I actually saw that happen.

A multi-tasking groomsman also did the honors of officiating and playing with his trio for the cocktail hour. Another friend from Berklee DJed with a deliciously hefty dose of soul. There was even a custom vodka and Domanie de Conton cocktail for the evening: The Four Aces. Not that it took much to get them on the dance floor.

In this spectacle of sunbeams, two worlds united – and I mean that literally as well as figuratively. The personifications of Music (our handsome groom) vs. Science (our radiant bride) as the allegorical rivals, matched for life. For fun. Not so much in competition, but in concert (yes, pun totally intended). This is blisswork.

Jul 06 2011

{sneak peek} Blisswork | Boston Wedding | Willowdale

gorgeous light streaming at Willowdale Estate

Jun 27 2011

FERshop!

A few weeks ago, Ad Hoc hosted a workshop by Mexican photographer Fer Juaristi. Fer’s work has been in my reader for the past few years, and I was delighted to host him at the studio. He is charming and earnest and an incredible photographer. We worked with a great couple, who are getting married in Mexico next year.

Bring on the hard light! I say. Bring it!

Jun 23 2011

where have I been all my life?

Apparently I am spending way too much computer time reading this blog, or that blog and consuming various McSweeney’s columns, than than blogging my own work. It’s not as though I haven’t been shooting my ass off (tangentally I wish that photography actually did burn calories, specifically summer beer drinking calories).

But really. Really!

Big movement impending. For the best, I am dreaming big. Feeling for the first time a while creatively and spiritually engaged (yes, I have noticed that those two like tend to hang out together).

Sometimes I am a dreamer. Sometimes the pragmatic, snarky facade cracks and I am wild-eyed with possibility.

Jun 21 2011

Blisswork | Boston Engagement Portraits | M & S

Lovely summer engagement session at the Boston Public Garden. They met in Hawaii, though M.’s brother, whom I suspect will deliver a great toast on their wedding day.

S. and I went to high school together, and reconnected last summer when I manically attempted to re-photograph our classmates fifteen years later. See the other characters we studied with here.

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