SPECIAL ART SECTION | Laurie Starr

KEEPING CANNABIS CLASSY

If Laurie Starr looks familiar, it might be because the California-based cannabis model graced the cover of our spring issue. Her goal during the two years she has been modeling online and in print: To shift the imagery of cannabis culture.

Starr chose cannabis modeling after viewing a provocative photo on Instagram of a woman on her knees, wearing marijuana leaf thong underwear, with cash on her back and paraphernalia scattered around her. She knew the depiction didn’t represent the people in her life who used cannabis. “This is not at all what anyone that I know experiences when it comes to weed,” Starr said.

When she works with cannabis, Starr aims to portray classy and classic images. Online at LaurieStar.com, Starr displays a series which reproduces classic cigarette ads such as the Marlboro Man, swapping cannabis for tobacco.

She wants cannabis to be as socially acceptable as tobacco products were only a few decades ago.

To promote that point, she recreated a picture of movie star Audrey Hepburn smoking a cigarette from a long filter. Starr put on the dress, the necklace, and the earrings, but held a foot-long joint between her fingers instead of a cigarette.

A recent photo shoot for this magazine featured Starr recreating a classic Florida orange juice ad mimicking a similar campaign by singer Anita Bryant in an orange grove. (At one time, Bryant was a spokeswoman for Florida orange juice.) Starr was excited about the shoot, but later was shocked to learn that Bryant was an outspoken opponent to gay rights in Florida during the 1970s. Starr believes in inclusion and knew the shoot couldn’t proceed without something changing. Starr’s solution? Be pied in the face to “make sure that we were representing the LGBTQ community in the proper way” she said.

Starr was “super-stoked” that the magazine was “adamant about following through with keeping everything on the positive side of equality.” She noted that since the cannabis industry is fighting for equal rights, it’s nice to know the industry is providing mutual support to others.

Based in Mendocino, CA, it’s difficult for Starr to do acting jobs, but she’s looking to shape cannabis perception in that industry as well. She is hoping to do informative pieces demystifying cannabis for new patients and showing them how to use and receive benefits from the plant.

“There are people out there who don’t have information who should have information,” Starr stated.

“There just needs to be a real huge social and soulful mindset change as to how cannabis is interpreted, whether that be recreationally or medicinally” she said. “My ultimate goal is to help make sure that cannabis remains classy.”

You can find more of Starr’s work on her website or on Instagram @Cannastarr. You can also follow the hashtag #KeepCannabisClassy.