Monday, April 19, 2010

Mother Goddess body painting session

I find that plans are made to be broken. This weekend's plans that i wrote out in Friday's blog post were quickly unraveled when i got home and found an exciting email waiting for me. I got a wonderful response from my craiglist add looking for pregnant models to participate in my body painting project. So guess what i did on Saturday?
Danny and I met our VERY pregnant model inside T.Ruth Artspace gallery (portland, oregon) at 10:am on Saturday and got to painting right away:
body painting process
I started the painting process at 10:00am and didn't finish till close to 4:00pm. We then photographed from 4:00pm-6:00pm so it was a looong day. But as always i thoroughly enjoyed myself. I love getting to know my models. Spending over 6 hours in very close proximity- you end up learning alot about each other. Her story was sweet. She is 38+ weeks pregnant and her baby bump was huge! It was amazing painting the soft smooth and firm flesh of the belly and watching as her baby kicked and moved around within. What an amazing connection!

Mother Goddess
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Michelle Davis)

....in the initial email she wrote, answering my wanted add i knew instantly that she had a strong grasp of what i was interested in capturing during the art creating session.
This is what she had to say about the scared beauty and strength inherit in the pregnant woman and the pregnancy process:

"I have always felt that the pregnant body is captivating and empowered. In pregnancy we are home to one of the most complex, mysterious projects of nature - very close to the earth and very alive. Many movements in recent years that have celebrated the female have neglected this part of our being due to old trappings associated with motherhood. I think this robs us of one of our most sacred assets." -Michelle Davis.

Truth be told!

There are a lot more photos to be posted shortly so keep an eye out on my blog for updates.

Other then that i didn't end up working on a new painting yet. However i did quite a lot of varnishing. The Dread Goddess painting is now absolutely 100% finished since she has her gloss coat on. I also started 2 new pen and ink over acrylic artworks that i will be finishing tonight and listing for sale in our etsy shop.
I had good news on Friday that one of my paintings sold at InOtherWords feminist bookstore where I have my artwork being featured through the month of April. So i was super thrilled to hear that! Over the weekend we had a good bout of sales in our etsy shop which has pushed us over 90 sales...and we are now zeroing in on our 100th sale!!! Just a few more purchases will do it! Wow. I cant believe it! This is all wonderful news and very encouraging. My drive to create right now is fierce! I cant wait to get home and get to work.
Thank so much to all the supports our there!

So how was your weekend? Any victories( small or large) or tribulations?

Best wishes,
-Chelsea Rose

8 comments:

  1. Chelsea I look forward to your work, your postings. It seems like your line painting captures, perhaps, the energy flows within a person that is normally invisible to the naked eye. Your model is beautiful and your painting upon her, revealing the unseen, making it seen or more easily seen. I think your work does that. Awesome - magical.

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  2. Thanks so much for your words. I am very glad you are enjoying my postings- there is so much more to share and responses like yours make it 100times worthwhile.
    Its interesting that you speak of seeing the "normally invisible energy flows within a person" through my line work in these body paintings. I tell each person i paint that i really do feel that the patterns that present themselves in each body painting have a lot to do with the individual’s personal energy. Your highly perceptive! I wish i could learn to interpret the patterns i paint- what does a super spirally body painting mean as far as energy patterns go for an individual? what does it mean when the person has a lot of jagged or sharp lines in the body painting? how does that translate to their personal energy imprint or emotions?
    ...fascinating.
    Thanks so much for your thoughts and support!

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  3. Congratulations on so many wonderful things! Your model is absolutely gorgeous! My weekend was a bit slow. I sat for two days at a fantasy convention and didn't sell as much as I had hoped. It was still nice to hear so many people appreciate my work though.

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  4. Wowee wow wow wow *I just channeled Borat* that was odd.
    My gosh she is gorgeous and only hieghtened by such amazing work luv!
    Fantastic I love it!!!
    Can you believe I started a blog? I can't... It's one of the signs of the impending apocolypse... you'll know the anti christ has taken power when I TWEET.
    See ya round etsy:)
    MWAH!
    -Dolicia

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  5. Hey Megan,
    wow...full two days at a fantasy convention huh? I feel yea...some times the art fairs/art walks and farmers markets seem to drag on and on and on without being all that fruitful. Happens often actually. I’m glad you were able to come away with the knowledge that people really responded well to your artwork. This is good...and hopefully you did some networking and found some new loyal customers to follow your etsy. hang in there.
    ------
    ....the good Dr!
    I just read your blog post and cracked up.
    Glad to have you on the blogosphere.
    welcome.

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  6. I agree with your model's words--we don't appreciate the creative force of motherhood often enough, maybe associating with the older notions of 'the woman's job' of being mother. Even though I don't plan on being a mother, I can see the potential creativity of a mother as powerful. Your body paintings' seem to highlight this power and they fascinate me!
    I look forward to seeing more of your pics!

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  7. LRC- i hear ya. I myself don’t plan on having children either. Cats are enough for me ;)
    But yes...i have always felt strong realizing i carried the ability within to create another human and nature it with my own body. what a sacred and fascinating process it all is.
    im so glad you are enjoying the body painting series. There will be new releases coming soon!

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  8. Beautiful documentation, lovely body art design.

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