Plans are made to be broken- recounting Lost Thursday and the weekend

I have noticed in my short life thus far that plans made tend to be broken. For the art walk that i had been rambling about for some time, that was to occur last Thursday, was indeed canceled by the unpredictable rain of the pacific north west.
I had also made plans to do another body painting photo shoot on Saturday but Friday night received a text that undid those plans. I enjoyed turning the alarm clock off, sinking back into bed with the knowledge id get to sleep in on Saturday instead of rush off to a photo shoot.
That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the weekend. I didn't leave the couch much. I read books, with a warm sleeping cat on my lap and a mug of tea within reach for the better part of Saturday and Sunday. Even though none of that was the initial plan for the weekend, id say it all worked itself out rather nicely.
When i did get my butt of the couch it was to work a lil bit on my ink on acrylic paintings.
Took a few photos of my work table to share:


I ended up listing two of these new ink and acrylic paintings for sale in our etsy shop:

yellow Bastet cat goddess
9"x12"
hand drawn pen and ink illustration and acrylic painting on canvas
by Chelsea Rose
going for $40
for more info check out the listing here


...i have a bunch more to list and will be doing so throughout the week along with more tie dye!

Last night I browsed through more of the photos of Ana and posted another shot:


Love Thy Self
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Ana)


Rebel Heiress
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Thierra)

Just wanted to share these few things this morning with you all.

A lot is coming up this week and next week. Tomorrow i drop off my art to be hung for April Fools in the Practical Magic Group show, that i am super pleased to be in:

If you are in Portland on April fools i highly recommend stopping by and checking out this show which will be full to the brim with some of Portland's best and local art!
Once i have submitted the art for the this group show i will start piecing together the artwork that i will be displaying at the feminist book store: InOtherWords which should be up for all of April to check out after April the 3rd!
Cool stuff.
I will keep you posted on the goings about.

So yep, thats about it for now.

Much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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more Love Thy Self body painting photos with Ana and new tie dye!

This week Danny and I have both been busy preparing our work for Last Thursday Artwalk on Alberta St which just so happens to be this week. It will be the first art walk of the year and im not exactly sure what to expect in the way of attendance. I guess we will find out. I should have taken photos of my work table since its brimming over with all sorts of art projects but i hadn't found the time.

But i did manage to post a couple more shots from my last body painting session:

Love thy Self
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Ana)
This is one of the last poses we did. I love her beaming smile here. Getting to know Ana was wonderful. She is a dedicated mother, a career woman and an aspiring model. She doesn't let anything in the entire world stop her from reaching her goals and dreams.
It was a pleasure working with her. what a muse!

Its Wednesday and i still dont have a shoot scheduled for the weekend. I do have a model in mind, I just need to find the time to call her and schedule!

Over the last few days i have released two more tie dye goodies:


Blue Green Orb tie dye shirt
100%cotton
size: Medium
Bust: 38"
Waist: 36"
hips: 38"
going for $20
check out the listing here.

and another skirt perfect for spring and summer:


Purple Jellyfish tie dye skirt
elastic stretchable waist band with belt loops
side pockets
lightly pleated
waist: 34-38"
hips: 44"
length: 32"
goin for $20 also
check out the listing here

So thats about it for now.
I will do another blog post on Friday with a recap of how the artwalk went. Wish us luck!

Much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Love Thy Self body painting and photography

So I wanted to share what I was up to over the weekend.
I did my 7th body painting and photography shoot for my body art series.
Here are the first 3 images I released over the weekend from the shoot:

Love Thy Self
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Ana)

I had a wonderful time working and hanging out with Ana.
As she was telling me about herself a heart mysteriously appeared in the middle of her chest which was quite interesting seeing that she had recently been through some heart complications.

Love Thy Self
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Ana)

I really enjoyed Ana's vibe in these photos. She seems to have a gentle strength to her that is both bewitching and inspirational.



It was a bright sunny day in Portland on Saturday both i think both of us were quite satisfied to be hanging out inside the loft of T.Ruth Art space and creating art. I love this project. I enjoy getting to know my models. I view them as art collaborators. Its fascinating to talk and hear each woman's personal wisdom. I could easily say i learn a thing or two with each woman i work with on this project.

...so thats it for now. i will be posting more photos from the shoot gradually per day for a couple weeks. So far i dont believe i have a photoshoot scheduled for this coming Saturday, so i will be working on trying to book one!

As for Sunday it was a stay at home kind of day. I spent most of the day sitting on the couch drinking tea, watchin movies while drawing with my ink pens atop a bunch of acrylic painted wood that i had prepped on Friday. I will be taking photos of the finished illustrations very soon and they will most probably end up listed in our etsy shop for sale!

Many blessings,
-Chelsea Rose
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New body painting photos, tie dye and ink on acrylic paintings

Whats new?

Well here are a couple more shots that i released over this week of my last body painting session:

(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
model: Thierra)


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
model: Thierra)
I have a lot more to show! And i will be releasing them gradually :)

This weekend on Saturday I will be back inside T.Ruth Artspace Gallery doing yet another body painting and photography session...So if you are in Portland and have some time to kill on Saturday please feel welcome to drop by and hang out inside the gallery while I create a live art instillation.

In other news I have been trying to pump out a bunch of smaller creations for selling in our etsy shop and in person at the up and coming art walks around town.
check out the new digs:

River Spirit
sage green
9"x12"
hand drawn pen and ink illustration and acrylic painting on canvas
by Chelsea Rose
and this is ready for purchase, going for $40.
Feel free to check out the listing here.


Pink Pixie
9"x12"
hand drawn pen and ink illustration and acrylic painting on canvas
by Chelsea Rose
also for sale, going for $40.
Feel free to check out the listing here.

(If you have a certain pen and ink drawing of mine that you wish to have revisited in this manner please feel free to ask for a custom order via an etsy conversation message. You are welcome to indicate what color background you would like said drawing to be done on.)

Also, last night for the first time we released the first prints of Danny's Mandala panintings for sale. check it out:

8x10 high quality print
Green and Purple Anahata mandala
Original India ink and watercolor painting by Danny Rodriguez
on sale now for $14. check out the listing here.

Over the week I listed some new tie dye wears!

Blue Tunnel
tie dye shirt
100% cotton
size: small
bust: 36"
hand tie dyed with lots of love!
priced at $20 in our etsy shop, have a look at the listing here.


Soft Sky Blue tie dye skirt
100% cotton long skirt
with a synthetic material half slip inside
elastic waist band
waist un stretched: 28"
waist stretched: 40"
hips: 22"
length 36"
i think this is the perfect sorta thing for spring. im tempted to keep it for myself :P
But I did list it last night on sale in our etsy shop for $20.
click here to view the listing.

...and last but not least : Tie dye pants!

Mint chip
striped tie dye pants
size medium
100% cotton
elastic waist band
waist unstretched: 30"
waist stretched: 36"
length: 34"
dye colors used: Burgundy and Turquoise
listed for $20 here.

...So, i guess thats all the news for now!
Im looking forward to this weekend's art projects. And there are a lot because we are getting ready for the art fairs. In fact, yesterday's main project was to hunt down a bunch more folding tables to display our art work and prints on. We ended up on one of those oh so crazy craigslist quests, but we got em in the end and for super cheap!

So yes, I look forward to posting again on monday and giving you a peak into the weekend madness.

Till then, much love!
-Chelsea Rose
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Busy Weekend: New Body painting photos and more

We had a super fun and busy weekend.
On Friday we went to the closing reception of the 5th annual Portland Love show where we ran into friends and enjoyed the evening. Turns out we sold the art piece that Danny and I put in under our collaboration name: Lucid Optic Lab.
Here is the snapshot of the piece hanging on the wall before it sold:

Our piece is the black and white photograph with a dash of red in it. Its from the "Your Body is Your Temple" body painting session that I did a couple months ago.
You can see the piece by its self here.

Speaking of body painting, on Saturday I did another session!
This was my second White paint on Dark skin body painting:

(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Thierra )
Meet Thierra who is an aspiring clothing/wardrobe designer as well as a single mother of two. Her clothing label name is Rebel Heiress.

I painted her in the loft of T.Ruth Artspace gallery
This time the body painting took a lot less time, we were all super surprised.
I suppose the more I do these body paintings the faster I will be able to bust them out.
We went down stairs and started photographing around 1:30pm and were done around 3:00pm.
After that Danny and I went home, cooked lunch and relaxed. These body paintings are so much fun but they seem to leave me exhausted. I have at least 3 more white paint on dark skin shoots that i need to complete before i an consider this project finished.
This coming weekend I have a black on light skin shoot with a wonderful local woman who has only one hand. She seems to have a super strong spirit and I cant wait to work with her!
More pictures will be coming soon!

On Sunday Danny and I did some chores and took a short hike up one of the forest park trails. When we got home we started working on art projects:

here i am in my tiny home studio space, working on these pen and ink drawings that i have been doing ontop of acrylic painted canvas. I managed to prep a lot of surfaces for drawing on, so now i have a big pile that i need to begin to ink. In this photo you can see me working on one, going over my initial lines and adding more line weight and detail to the piece. Both the purple one i am working on and the blue cat pen and ink are a part of a custom order that i am filling.

Let me know if you'd like to have one of these made in a certain color with a perticular drawing of mine. I would be delighted to create one for you!

Danny has just released some more of his music under the project name Bone and All:

thats the cover art for this EP that he made for Bone and All "Masters of the Universal Mind LP "
If you are a fan of trippy, psychedelicness then youd love his musical concoctions.
Have a listen to his music at bonesandall.myspace.com or downland and listen here

So thats about it.
When I get home today I will be listing some more tie dye in our etsy shop as well as listing some of the pen and ink drawings over acrylic that i finished over the weekend.
Also, stay tuned for more pictures from the latest body painting shoot.

Much love!
-Chelsea Rose
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New Pen and Ink drawings on Canvas + tie dye

This week flew by!
Its been super blustery and wet and i have been super tired for some reason by the time i get home. I haven't started a new painting yet but i have been working on making a bunch of these:

They are 9"x12" hand drawn pen and ink illustrations on acrylic painted canvas.
Im selling them for $40 in our etsy shop.
View the listing for the Green Masquerade and the Purple Poetess
these are reproductions i am making by projecting my original pen and ink drawings onto canvas and then hand tracing and refining them. With this process, even though i am reproducing my original art it seems each one tends to come out with variations from the original, thus making them unique and one of a kind!
I have a few more finished that i will take photos of and list soon so stay tuned for more!
Also, if you have a favorite pen and ink drawing of mine that you would like to have hand drawn onto a certain color of stretched canvas, please let me know and we can work out a custom order!

In other news i have posted some new tie dye in our shop. check it out:


We are calling this one "Blue Ripple"
Its unisex 100% cotton thermal long sleeve shirt.
Its a nice big size and super comphy with measurments of:
Bust: 40"
waist: 38"
hips: 40"
its selling right now for $20
Check out the sale listing here

We also listed a new tie dye skirt for sale:


We are calling this one "Midnight Purple Stripe"
its 100% cotton
waist: 32"
Hips: 42"
Length: 33"
has an adjustable draw string waist with zipper.
Hand tie dyed with lots of love!
Its also going for $20
check out the shop listing here

So thats it for now, as far as new stuff goes.

Today after work Danny and I will be attending the closing party for the 5th Annual Portland Love show....Danny and I both have artwork in the show, alongside a few of our friends from Portland and Vancouver. Should be fun!

Then this weekend i will be doing another body painting session at T.Ruth Artspace gallery. If you are in town and feel like stoppin by and hanging out we will be in the gallery painting and photographing all day! I am doing my 2nd body painting using white paint over dark skin.

So thats the scoop!
Happy Friday, have a wonderful weekend.
Much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Practical Magic art show + New Tie dye + another body painting shot.

I just got the flyer for the Practical Magic Art gallery group show!!


I am very, very excited to be a part of this group show amidst some amazing local artists!

Practical Magic
Coeur: Art
323 NW 6th- Portland
www.coeurart.com
April 2010
Opening First Thursday
6pm-10pm
Show runs through April 30th
Gallery Hours: Th, Fr, St 12-6pm
-------

So up here in Oregon we have had a bizarrely mild winter, especially when compared to last year's snow blast. Spring seemed to have come early- all the trees are abloom and the bulb flowers have sprouted all over. Which was a bit of a wake up call telling us to" Get off your butts and get tie-dyeing!"....the fairs should be starting up soon and we need some fresh tie dye to hang in our booth.
So here are a couple new items:

Yellow sunrise tiedye blouse
on sale now for $20
click here to view the sale listing.
100% cotton
size: women's extra small
bust: 38"
waist: 34"
hips: 32"
.....I think this one is my fave from our new tie dye batch! i am very tempted to keep it for myself.

and a tie dye dress:

Forest Nymph tie dye dress
on sale now for $20
click here to view the sale listing.
100% linen
button up dress
with draw string in back for adjustability
women size small
Bust: 40"
waist: 42"
hips: 44"

....we also ended up taking new photos of old tie dye. We felt some of the old tie dye would do better with higher quality images. i really think the new photos jazzed up the listings and more actuatly portrayed the individual tie dye awesomeness:


Leaf Lite tie dye shirt
women small(S) 100% cotton long sleeve shirt
dyed with procion mx turquoise and yellow
34" chest
to view listing click Here


Turquoise Vortex tie dye
on sale for $20
to view listing click here
women small(S) 100% cotton 3/4 sleeve V-neck shirt
dyed with procion mx turquoise and purple
40" chest

.....now that i look at all of these together i realize, with disappointment, that they are all size small! We have so much tie dye in big sizes yet to be photographed and listed mainly because we don't have a live model to wear them for us! I will have to solve this problem soon so that we have a better variety of size items available. Bare with me!

So we will be posting new tie dye at least once a day so keep checking out our shop for new tie dye goodies!

Oh yes....and i wanted to share with you a body painting photo i drudged up last night and released:

please click and full view!
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Amata)
....i hope you guys are not sick of body painting yet because i have my next shoot coming up this weekend!

Also, i just found out that i was written about in a HandMadeSpark.com article! Feel free to read it here. Its written by a dear blogger friend Studio MME about sharing artwork in progress with others!
So thats it for news right now. More to come later!

Happy international Women's Day!!

Peace n Love,
-Chelsea Rose
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The Sea Witch painting, my treasure map and another body painting photo

This week went by oddly fast.
I did manage to finish the painting i have been working for over two weeks now:

18"x24"
original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose
this image is a bit dark( im not the best color corrector. thats danny's expertise) but i wanted to share. A better quality photograph will be produced soon :)
but ya get the idea yea?
I then ended up reforming some of her arm tentacle to be more round and fluid vs angled. I also repainted the third eye to look more animal/reptile/cat-like. I added delicate tendrils to the background steming from her head dress. went over everything with more color and highlights. and then I was done. I finished it last night and took photos so i could share today on my blog.

Now to start on a new painting this weekend!

By the way. this painting was actually inspired by a lil mini canvas drawing i have listed in my etsy shop right now. here she is, the original sea witch:

Sea Witch
4"x5"
original acrylic + pen and ink painting on canvas board
by Chelsea Rose
selling for $15
( comes with its own mini easel )
to view the listing or to buy click HERE
so check out the shop for more of my original mini canvas pen and ink paintings!

I also wanted to share with you my "Treasure Map":

i went to a wisdom circle at T.Ruth Art space(Portland Oregon) last weekend...
this time we were led through a "self realization and actualization" meditation that involved forming a goal or want in your mind...and then creating what they called a "treasure map" where you piece together with magazine clippings... what you want to manifest in your life.
it was fun. i hung mine in my lil home art studio area on what i call my "inspiration wall"
I think this is a great exercise for those who are wanting to exercise their personal power of manifestation. Its a fun project that can be done at home while listening to music or watching a good movie or it could be done in a group setting. But as the wise woman, leader of this exercise had warned us all- be careful what you put on your treasure map because these things tend to eventually end up shaping themselves into our lives!


I took this picture of myself a couple days ago. I had the apartment to myself, was sipping tea and enjoying the feel of the sun coming through the window.
In this photo i am wearing a new choker that i got off of etsy from a really wonderful shop called KMKostumes/KMKDesigns
here is a close up of the choker:

I love it!
We ended up trading for it. I got the choker and she got a print of my "Poetess" drawing : )
I love bartering!!
Be sure to check out her shop...its full of all sorts of lovely costume including hand sewn corset dresses, adorable bloomers, petticoats, bows and more!
...looking at her shop makes me want to play dress up.

So thats it for now!
I will leave you with a picture of a quiet weekend moment:

making breakfast in the morning before rushing around portland.

Much love to all, thanks for all the support!
-Chelsea Rose
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Apparition of Truth- more body painting photos from the series

So its Monday and in many ways i feel like clawing my own eyes out, roasting them in garlic and feeding them to my cat. But i will refrain. I promise.
The weekend was wonderful. I did not have a body painting photo shoot lined up so i used my extra time wisely by working on my painting in process, getting things ready for the art fair seasons(next month!) and a lil bit of house cleaning and soul searching too.

I also released 2 more shots from my Apparition of Truth shoot with Wenseay:

(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Wenseay)


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Wenseay)

My next shoot is lined up for the 13th. Should be fun!
....The more i have thought about turning this body painting project of mine into a series that i could show in a gallery, the more i realized how out of budget printing and framing all of these photographs would be. So, today on my way home im planning on stoppin by the library to see if they have any HOW TO books on Grant writing. That would be a great way to deal with the expenses of printing and framing all the photos from this body painting series. Its worth a shot, at least.

I have confirmed that i will be having my solo show in April at InOtherWords feminist book store. Which means i am kicking my butt into hyper gear to see how many more paintings i can produce before i have to begin the hanging.
Speaking of painting, danny took this photo over the weekend while i was fine tuning some of the details in the painting i am currently working on:

I should be done with this one in a day or two...whether i like it or not, it will be time to move on!

....oh! Did i mention i woke up on Saturday with a guttural need to find a yard sale? Well danny and i ended up finding one. It was small and the woman was mainly selling toddler clothes but look what i found in the free box:

yes, i found this wicked cool Bonnet in a for free box! I love it. Its very sweet and simple with browns and yellows. It will be perfect to wear in the summer during the art fairs to keep my face out of the sun. Yay for bonnet love and free finds : )

Also, check out this Mandala painting that danny did over the weekend:

(water color and ink mandala painting by Danny)
i think this one is my fave out of the 6 that he has done so far. you can view the rest here.
Purple and green are my fave colors, especially when combined and i love the scale pattern that he used on this one. Cant wait to see what he does next with these Mandalas of his.

Yep, so we still have a lot of stuff to get done in time to the art fairs.
Busy busy.
Hope all is well with everyone.
Peace n Love,
-Chelsea Rose
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