Painted ladies

(Shae DeTar)Years later, while living in Milan, DeTar's roommate saw some of her off-hours projects, and suggested that she consider graphic design. A two-year stint at the School of Visual Arts in New York followed. But she ultimately felt stifled by the rigidity the work required."I was always trying to get away from the computer and hand in assignments on my own terms, by working with my hands, and making textured paintings and painted photos," DeTar says. "My teachers loved the work I was doing, but it was clearly not graphic design."

(Shae DeTar)

(Shae DeTar)DeTar returned to modeling, and also began working behind the scenes in the fashion world. After a few years, she was burnt out. And it was then, nearly two decades after she first felt the creative instinct to manipulate images, that she picked up her camera once again."The first printed image I made, I instantly began painting (parts of it)," DeTar says. "Just as I had as a teenager." She knew she had found her calling.

(Shae DeTar)

(Shae DeTar)"I love using the female form and enhancing the environment to create a fantasy world," DeTar says. "I'm just experimenting, and having fun."That playful quality is all the more impressive when you understand DeTar's extensive (and expensive) process. She hires models who travel with her to locations far outside of New York City. She loads up on film, paint, and a range of props and costumes. And after she takes the photographs, she paints."Sometimes [painting over an image] takes 15 minutes. Sometimes it takes all day, or even a week," DeTar says. "It's probably like songwriting; sometimes a song will come to a musician in 15 minutes, and sometimes they have to work on it, restructure it, maybe put it away for a month and come back to it. That happens for me, too. It's very much a serious task, but I try to come at it with a playful and experimental approach."

(Shae DeTar)

(Shae DeTar)"I try to stay away from looking at more modern photography…because I don't want to subconsciously have other people's work in my mind," DeTar esays. "I stick to immersing myself in the work of impressionist and surrealist painters, and exploring modern art."

(Shae DeTar)

(Shae DeTar)"Once, I had five naked girls with bright red wigs swimming in a river," DeTar says. "My dog Waylon was sitting on the bank of the river, I was on a ladder balancing in the water with my camera, and all of a sudden these river rafts with people in them began passing by. It was a memory maker, for sure."You would never know such distractions took place just out of the frames, though. And that is the magic of DeTar's work: Devising fantasy lands where water nymphs peacefully float, flower girls reign supreme, and the next fantastical, surreal fairy tale is just a brush stroke away.

(Shae DeTar)

(Shae DeTar) **To see more of Shae DeTar's work, check out her website, and follow her on Instagram**