July Last Thursday Artwalk on Alberta Street + new corset

So its Friday morning and i am having a hard time keeping my eyes open and my legs and arms feel as if they were made of lead but emotionally i feel elevated and inspired- these are the true sings of a art walk that went well!

Yesterday was Last Thursday Art walk on Alberta St ( a free art vending opportunity that occurs monthly in Portland Oregon.)
Unfortunately this was the first one of these i was able to attend so far this year because previous months it was either raining or i was out of town. So, i decided i was going to go this month and go enforce, thus i took the day off from work so that we could arrive
super early ( around 12:00pm) to stake out a good spot.

This is a photo Danny took after i had finished getting ready by painting my face for the art walk.
It was a super bright day so we were very lucky to have grabbed a spot with ample shade and trees. Still...the brightness made it hard to snap photos of our booth setup during the day but Danny managed to grab some of my body painting exploits:


I painted several lil girls faces + a few young adult faces...but when i asked one person if i could paint their face they turned around and asked " can i paint you!?"
Of course i said yes! they painted a small vine starting from my numb up a lil past my hand that ended in a heart. It was a silly/fun/unexpected treasure.
As the day crept into night danny was able to get a shot of our booth setup:

This photo was taken at a strange angle because what you dont see is the massive wall of moving people walking down the street in front of the booth. The turnout for this was just insane. After 8:00pm it was almost impossible to step out of the booth because the "river of flesh" was roaring!
We were setup facing the street with two tables on parallel sides .
One table with my my art:

the other table with Danny's art:

We used to always set up our artwork together but found that customers got confused as to "who's artwork was who's" which seemed to bother them a bit. Thus, we have found that now this separation seems to streamline customers experience making it less "modge podged" and more effective.
We did also have Danny's stencil records and a few silkscreen shirts on display laying on a sheet on the sidewalk:

We had a lot of folks stop and hover over the records- seems a particular point of interest to many.
We did well in sales this time which is always encouraging. We sold two of my pen and ink on Masonite board illustrations, a few art prints, a couple tie dye, and several face/body paintings.
Also managed to luck out and have a bunch of familiar faces pop up out of the blue so there was lots of hugs and catching ups to do. Met a few new friends as well.
And, as allways...its left me really looking forward to the next art walk on Alberta!
If you are interested in seeing some wonderful documentive photos of the this months artwalk check out the amazing Anni Becker's photographs here- bosting photos of all the crazy splendors of the day such as fire dancers, roaming musicans, dance pits, free hugs, crazy costumes, cute puppies, cops, artwork and artists , jugglers and much much more!!!

In other news, my new corsets arrived in the mail this week!
They were made by Danny's talented lil sis seamstress extraordinaire:

I am in love with it! I had picked out the fabric and sent it over awhile ago so i was delighted to have it in time to wear to the art walk last night.

Tomorrow i am going to the FaerieWorlds summer celebration festival to check it out for the first time. I am mainly going to enjoy myself but partly going to scope out the art vendors to see if perhaps i should hold a booth of my own at the fair for next year. we shall see! Also very excited that i get to do some body painting while i am there: will be painting the Didgeridoo Man in the band Telesma for their musicale prefromance at the festival! Pictures from this outing will most probably be posted via blog update on Monday.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend filled with joy, relaxation and creation.

Peace n Love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Weekend bliss: Queen Bead, KPG live music, mermaid acrylic painting, playing dress up and morning glory flower

This weekend was eventful and this coming week will be the same way or perhaps doubly so!

First off, one more photo to share from my body painting photo shoot with Queen Bead:


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Queen Bead )

Why is she called Queen Bead? well thats her artist/stage name. She is the head woman for a local reggae band called KPG - Keep Portland Green and her voice coupled with the music made me tingle. I danced all night long...needless to say i was super sore the next day and have realized how out of shape i have gotten- need to dance more!! This was a wonderful way to start the weekend.

On Saturday Danny and I watched T.Ruth artspace gallery
We set up a lil sidewalk art sale and worked on various projects inside while greeting the people who came in to look at art. Queen Bead dropped by with her son, i gave her a CD full of the body painting photos of her and we chatted for a couple hours.

I also managed to get some work done on my mermaid painting:

....i am not sure what it is with painting mermaids but they always give me trouble. I am assuming its their trickster/mischievous nature. I have been drawing them since i was 5, so i better get used to painting them since i love mermaids so much!

...i think she finally did manage to cooperate and i got a fair amount of work finished on her. Shes at least got her first layer of paint on...i am going to put in some flowy side fins on her tail and a bunch of bubbles in her hair. Blue/green and yellow orange is a strange color combo for me and i dont think i can say i have it mastered yet so i will have to do a lot more tweaking with it till i am happy. So there is loads more work to do on her- i pray i can find the time to do it in the next few weeks!

In other news...i discovered that my dreads have grown long enough to do side buns...whoohooo!

Can you tell i was quite excited?

....turns out to be a great dread-do for the hot summer months- helps keep the dreads up to cool off the neck!

Also, I came to realize that the FaerieWorlds Festival is this coming weekend! I must go and so i shall. Also will be happily helping the singer Joanne Berman Juskus who heads the band Telesma by giving her and her drummer a lift to the festival- they will be playing there at 5:30pm. Whats extremely exciting, that i just now learned via facebook message a sec ago, is that they are hoping to have me do some body painting on the digeridoo man( Ian Hesford) for their preformance! I cant wait. I guess Ian usually goes onstage painted up very tribal and has even been painted by Alex Grey for a concert! If you have time...check them out, they make some wonderous psychedelic mind blowing music.

So yes... looks like i will be doing all that on Saturday. This realization had me diving into my costume bag to figure out what to wear:

I love playing dress up!

...i think this hat is going to save me from turning into one big sunburn on Saturday.
I am also super excited to hear that the two corsets i commissioned Danny's amazingly talented seamstress sister to make me are on their way in the mail! Thus...i may be strutting about with one of my new ones on for the fair. I had her make one under bust corset with this crazy 60s mushroom fabric i found and another corset- over bust(1700's styled) out of a wonderful purple brocade. I will take photos when they arrive( due Wednesday i think!)

This Thursday is the Art walk on Alberta st so we are also gearing up for that- will be there around 20th and alberta st ( Portland or) with a full booth boasting lots of paintings, art prints, screen prints and tie dye!

That's it for now....more updates and news soon.
Best wishes and much love,
-Chelsea Rose

P.S

i wanted to share my first morning glory bloom of the summer with you:

bye now :)
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More Queen Bead body painting photos + mermaid painting in progress + Evolve Mushroom screen print +patio garden pics

Its getting closer to the end of July and the beginning of August. Danny reminded me the other day that my birthday is only a few weeks away- how strange!
Its been a very mild summer thus far and for that i am truly greatfull for its allowed me to be less "melty brained" and work on projects ( some times the heat of summer does me in and i just end up a puddle on the floor.)

First off i wanted to share two more photos i posted from my body painting photo shoot with Queen Bead:


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Queen Bead)


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Queen Bead)

I am looking forward to tonight! Queen Bead will be singing with her reggae band tonight at a club in Washington. It will be my first time seeing her preform and I cant wait!

I started working on a mermaid painting last week and haven't gotten much done on it since then:

...i haven't even finished putting down the first beginnings of color and I'm already not liking where it is going.
I am doing this painting based off of my "love thy self" pen and ink drawing of a mermaid hugging herself:

( pen and ink drawing by Chelsea Rose)
....I initially started out painting her with a light green skin tone but she was melding way too much with the light blue background. I am trying out a natural pinkish skin tone and not liking it at all. However, it may just be too early to tell. What i really need to do is add some more layers of colors and shadow before i make any rash judgments but its been hard to find motivation to work on her unfortunately. However i will have plenty of time to stare her down and do some work on Saturday when Danny and I go and watch T.Ruth art space gallery from 1-6pm. i really do enjoy painting in the back while doing my best at greeting people when they filter in to look at all the art.

In other news Danny made a new screen print from his "Evolve" design. Check it out:

one of a kind screen print composite.
designed and hand screen printed by Danny.

He used two of his recent screen print designs to create it. The background is his faery star screen, the mushroom his most recent silkscreen creation.

I am in love with the new prints and lucked out by getting the first "evolve" print on a shirt- all for myself:

Isn't it lovely? If you want a print of your own feel fee to send in a custom order with t-shirt size/color and paint color preferences!

....Did you notice the hat? well i recently got it in order to help shield myself from the constant bombardments of sunburns that summers tend to inflict on my pale skin. When i came home with it the other day Danny thought it was ridiculously huge and likened it to wearing a sombrero! But i do love it and my good friend Dr. Bob gave me the cool paper blue flower to adorn the hat with. I think the hat will do well for the long bus rides home in the sun, the summer hikes we take and all the hours ill be spending sitting in direct sun at the various art fairs of the season.

I also have a couple patio garden snapshots to share:

Its a true luxury to have a lil outside patio to ourselves amongst the pitfalls of apartment living. Although i dream of working an actual piece of land to plant all sorts of edibles I am making due with what space i do have. i started a potted herb garden from seeds( i think i will do starts next time since seed growing is magical to witness but a slow slow thing.) So far i have the following herbs sprouting happily: cilantro, chile, basil and chamomile. However i am most excited about the morning glory vine that i planted. The morning glory vine have been so quick to grow, some of their leafy vines already climbed the lattice and are beginning to work their way around the top of the patio rail. I was very excited the other morning to find my first two buds ready to burst:

Morning Glory is my favorite sort of flower. I wish i was small enough to live in their enchanting purple trumpet blooms.

On that note i will break off this post.
Its supposed to be a hot weekend so who knows how much i will get done really...hopefully some painting, maybe some hiking but i am sure there will be a lot of time spent in the shade drinking some iced herbal tea, watching the plants on the patio grow.

Much love to all,
-Chelsea Rose
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Weekend Tidbits:finishing my Trinity Pixie painting and a look at Dayzee love creations

This weekend was blissfully uneventful- sometimes you need those in order to find a balance.

Our only obligation for the weekend was on Saturday: to open up and watch our friend Tiffany's Gallery, T.Ruth Artspace, since she is till recovering from illness. We made the best of the day by setting up a couple tables along the gallery front on the sidewalk and sold some of our creations. I love sidewalk sales.
I also managed to put the final touches on a acrylic painting i have been working on:

This is the Trinity Pixie- named after her strange balance of 3 eyes. I spent about 3 hours going over her in the gallery adding more highlight and shadow/correcting shape and so on ( in this photo she was still an hours worth or work away from being finished.) Today when i get home from work i hope to sign her and coat her in a protective gloss varnish then she will be all done. I will be displaying her along with some of my other paintings next month inside the Guerrilla Gallery, curated and run by Olin and the Guerrilla Media artist collective based in Vancouver WA ( i love those folks!) I will have more on that as the date draws nearer.

I also wanted to share an etsy artist and friend with you: DayzeeLove creations
She is a UK based etsy seller whom i met via Chat on one veryyy slow day.
I recently had ordered a pair of custom made clip on earrings from her and she had sent me some extra goodies along with them and i liked them so much!

....they are called "Purple Skeleton Leaf Glass and Antique Bronze Bobby Pins with Silver background."
see her actual etsy store listing for these here.
...her creations are very hard to resist for those who are generally entranced by shiny things :P

and a close up for you:

Here is a shot documenting the lovely "Green and Purple Skeleton Leaf Glass Earrings" that she made into clip ons for me since i dont have my ears pierced. Check out her shop listing for them here.
I love etsy and the community of hands on, hand made enthusiasts and artists. Its a very good thing to have a hub such as this site where other artists can mingle and connect from all around the world with each other- sharing inspiration and helpfull tips. And even though i have my own shop on etsy i think its karmatically good to buy from another etsy shop now and again- we have to support eachother!
Speaking of my etsy shop, its been awhile since i have uploaded anything new so i will have to make a point this week to do so. However i currently have over 100 art creations for sale including original paintings, art prints, screen printed shirts, tie dye and much more so take a glance into the shop if you are curious.

So yes, hello to a new week.
Much love to all,
-Chelsea Rose
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Winged Offering acrylic painting + Wise Woman body painting + Evolve Mushroom screen print

Happy Friday to all.

I finally got my act together a posted a full version of my most recently finished painting.

Winged Offering:


14"x14" (box framed/gallery wrapped stretched canvas)

Original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose

...and to think it all started with a sketch i found in an old drawing book of mine:

....i have kept every sketch book i had all throughout middle school, high school and on into my adult years. I have them all ready at hand right next to my art table to skim through for inspiration- mostly finding them a goldmine to expound upon. I look at the books and see stored potential, stored energy eager to manifest someday into a newly executed drawing or painting. I also find it endlessly fascinating to look at the sketchbooks and see my style of drawing slowly morphing and changing direction. I am eager to see how my style changes in a few short years.

I am about a weekends worth of work away from finishing another painting sparked by a drawing of mine. Painting will be based off of this pixie:

You can view process shots here of me working on laying the first foundations of acrylic color to the painting.

I also wanted to share two more shots i posted from my Wise Woman photoshoot with the wonderfully talented and open minded Suzanne Owens-Duval:


Wise Woman
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model:Suzanne Owens-Duval )


Wise Woman
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model:Suzanne Owens-Duval )

i had to post both of these because i wasn't sure if i preferred her wonderful regal profile or her full sweet face with such warm and intelligent eyes. Which do you prefer?

Danny made a new screen of a recent design of his:


Evolve
mushroom screen print and design by Danny.
No doubt inspired be the amazingness of the world of mushroom, their extremely important role in life on this planet and the amazing amount of potential the organisms present. if you have not see this already check out this mushroom/fungi video: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world.
...I am sure Danny will begin screen printing "Evolve" onto shirts very soon so feel free to send in custom orders!

Peace n Love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Queen Bead, my 12th body painting of the series!

I am thrilled and super exited to show off my most recent body painting and photo session.

I bring you a powerful portrait study of a brave, wondrous muse, artist and all around powerful and beautiful woman: Queen Bead!


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Queen Bead )


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Queen Bead )


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Queen Bead )


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Queen Bead )


(process shot taken by Danny )
Saturday was a hot one so as soon as Danny and I got to our shoot location, T.Ruth Artspace Gallery, we cranked the AC. Queen Bead arrived around 10:30am and we got to painting after plugging in a few fans in the back of the gallery.
I was truly amazed at how quickly this body painting was finished. We got started around 10:30am and finished around 1:30pm, then took pictures till around 2:30/3pm.

Queen Bead was my 12 body painting for this series/women's study and I am very pleased with the photos and how it all turned out.

I was positively bursting with inspiration as soon as i met this woman a couple months ago at the art fair "Craft in the Village" in Vancouver WA. She was sitting at a booth with her son selling colored pencil and ink illustrations of powerful queens, empresses and goddesses. I was entranced by her persona and energy and couldn't help but run up and ask if she might be interested in modeling for my body painting women's study. To my glee she instantly seemed interested in the project saying it sounds like just the thing she needs for her CD/Album cover art! Turns out she is an inspired reggae singer- her stage name being Queen Bead. Listen to a few of her songs here. ( my favorite song of hers is the one called "Barefoot Healer")

I feel blessed to have her unique energy and beauty entered in to this project of mine- the universe works in mysterious and wonderful ways!

More from this shoot to be posted soon.

Much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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3 day weekend of art- body painting, art fairs and new acrylic on canvas!

Thank goodness for 3 day weekends! I got so much done and even had time to play and have some fun too.
....I have a lot of photos to share but i am going to start with what i am most excited to post: my new body painting photos:


Wise Woman
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model:Suzanne Owens-Duval )

I feel blessed to have been able to work with Suzanne and include her in this growing women's study art project of mine.
A few weeks back i realized that my body painting project had a lot going for it: a wide rang of body type, ethnicity and culture but was missing a nice range of age. With this realization in mind i posted a craigslist ad asking for elderly women who might be interested in participating in my project. I only got one response and that was from my model Suzanne who turned out to be a super vivacious and skilled professional actor for screen and stage!


Wise Woman
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Suzanne Owens-Duval)

We did the body painting in the loft of T.Ruth Artspace gallery on Sunday- walking down the stairs to stand in front of the backdrop on the main floor of the gallery. As always it was wondrous getting to know my model and it was uncanny how much we had in common in thoughts, feelings and intention. She seemed to have a real love for life and was well equipped to roll with life's punches through the years. We both agreed that everything happens for a reason and there is little point in regretting things. We also seemed to think that the body is a person's temple and that as women age the beauty matures and changes anew- our bodies becoming road maps showing the signs of a life lived well and to the fullest.


Wise Woman
(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Suzanne Owens-Duval)

I took over 500 photos of Suzanne in little over an hour and a half and i have been having a wonderful time in my spare moments this past weekend sifting through the shots and polishing the keepers. Needless to say, there will be more coming soon!

Now, jumping back to Friday...i wanted to share a quick snapshot of our simple set up for Craft In the Village:

Danny picked me up early from work so that we could drive on over to Vancouver Washington to participate for our second time in their "Craft in the Village" art vending event. It was predicted to rain but that sure didn't stop us! Our lil fair still went strong with live music and a dozen or more vendors braving the storm. It did rain buckets for an half an hour but we survived and were rewarded with blue sky and sun for the rest of the day. We did pretty well on sales considering! And as always it was wonderful fun to meet and hang out with all the other local artists.

On Saturday Danny and I watched T.Ruth Artspace gallery ( since our dear friend and the gallery owner is re cooperating from surgery.) Of course we had a blast greeting the people who walked in to enjoy the art. While i was there i did a lot of painting- which Danny had fun documenting:

The night before i had painted this basic background and inked a faery onto it using my fabercastell India ink pens. I brougth the canvas in and set up my tote easel and got to work.

I always start with the eyes!

can you tell my favorite things to draw and paint are lips and eyes?

....i like this photo- it shows how much my dreads have been growing!

....almost done! just working on the wings and then i need to go over everything again with another layer of shading and highlight!
goodness....this post is picture heavy...

On Sunday we had a surprise visit from two dear friends who have been living in southern Oregon on a beautiful stretch of land. We all made dinner together( fresh herb salad with home made pesto sauce and tortellinis)...then we all hung out on the patio as the sun set. Then they baked the most delicious cookies and we sat around watching episode upon episode of Avatar the Last Air Bender as i dreaded one of the dear fellow's mohawk!

All in all it was a wonderful few days!

Now that the new week is here i am looking forward to finishing up the painting i started on Saturday and hopefully beginning a new one. More photos from my "Wise Woman" shoot should be up soon.

Best wishes and much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Many Armed Goddess Body Painting and Ebru Marbling demo

Its July and its Friday, already- time is such a shifty slippery thing.

Check out this photo manipulation that danny made from my most recent body painting photos:

(Body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Deonte
digital editing and manipulation by Danny )
Danny also just recently finished designing and coding a website dedicated to offering our photographer portrait services. check out Lucid Portraiture to see a good portfolio of our various portraits, styles and price ranges.

Last night was very fun. We hosted an artist demo inside T.Ruth Artspace galleryand it was a major success thanks to the amazing and wonderfully talented artist: Reza Antoszewska-she specializes in a fascinating Turkish paper marbling technique called Ebru- a monoprint technique using a thickened medium on which the artist places the paints by various methods, then works the colors in the medium with stylus, combs, and other methods to develop the designs. The print is then carefully transferred to the treated paper or fabric to capture the design.
Her Demo was amazing and everyone who was there got to make their own first Ebru artpeice:

You can see the demo set up in the first photo while the second photo shows Danny holding up his successful Ebru piece while Reza proudly smiles in approval. See his finished Ebru here.
She is standing infront of the wall where she has a spectacular body of her Ebru work up. Now that i have seen the process she is undertaking to create her art it truly is fascinating looking at the work and realizing how much control and skill she harnesses over this process. Reza's artwork will be up and on display till September so there is plenty of time to come visit the gallery and see the work in person. If you are not in the Oregon area feel free to click here to see some of her work.

In other news i am leaving work a bit early today so that we can drive on over to Vancouver Washington and set up a booth to sell our artwork at "the craft in the village" which happens every first Friday of the month. So i will have a full report with photos on how that goes.

Also- on July 4th i will be doing another body painting live inside t.ruth artspace gallery( and NO! i will not be painting her in stars and stripes*gag reflex.*) This will be my first "elderly" woman to enter into the project and i am super thrilled about it! Feel free to come on over and hang out, drink some tea and watch as the art project unrolls.

So yes....expect a photo heavy blogpost for Monday.

I do hope everyone enjoys their 3day weekend while managing to not burn anyone’s home down or explode away any limbs.
Much love!
-Chelsea Rose
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