New painting in the works plus painting time lapse video

So this weekend was great! Had the chance to meet up with a lot of lovely artistic minds and so I am all fired up and excited about new connections forged and the possibility of lots of awesome artistic collaborations in the near future. woohooo!
Meanwhile i got some work done on a new painting:

work in progress painting on a 14" x 14" canvas
and i am super excited to share my first ever blog video! Its a time lapse of me working on the painting above. check it out:




We also shot video of Danny doing an Ebru( turkish papermarbling) session this weekend. Its being edited and when its all done i will be very happy to share it with you! We are thinking about making our own lil youtube channel for Lucid Optic Lab. The video quality isn't amazing but its really not bad at all considering we are using an IPod to record these!

And here is a cozy shot from home sweet home:

hanging out in the rockin chair with sushi cat. one of the less crowded stretches of wall in our apartment. running out of wall space rapidly!

How was your weekend? Any fun projects?

Peace n Love,
-Chelsea Rose
Lucid Optic Lab
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Eternal Canvas a short story by Chelsea Rose

Happy Friday all.
For the first time on my blog I am going to share a short fiction story I wrote.
I am particpating in a fiction writing party a friend of mine holds once a month on her blog. The offical blog party begins on Sunday but seeing that i beleive i wont have much time to access the computer over the weekend i figured i would go ahead and post it today. Anyhoo, for those who enjoy reading please feel free and do let me know your thoughts!
Speical thanks to my writing buddies Sara and Michelle for making a few much needed swipes through with their red markers. Much love!

"Eternal Canvas"
a short fiction story by Chelsea Rose Rippel

Tattered sleeves whisked wildly as the fringed and ragged hair of the paint brush swirled its color leaving a torrential vomit of rainbow in its wake. The canvas was shadowed here and there by a looming figure so alive with energy the room radiated and glowed in the strange wafting warmth emitted. Yes, there she stood, her head cocked ever so to the right, pale lips parted, blood shot eyes intent yet soft focused on the canvas as she watched in her own fevered way the delicate bones, joints and sinuses of her hand weave strange and wondrous worlds. Each of her smoldering paint strokes focused the inexplicable webbing of truth that gathered at times like these as buds of daggered lightning, alighting from somewhere above, or was it in-between? It had always funneled this way, where ever it came from, straight into that whirling vein of energy that taped deep into the membrane of her crown. These spasms were impossible to ignore as they punctured and reverberated deep within that mysterious gland, always resting in its nest of brain matter, cozy in its den smack dab in the middle of her forehead, the location of what the ancient shamans deemed The Third Eye...

She paused, dropping the paint brush to free her hand so that she might press her finger tips to the throbbing ember that was her cranium. She had turned away from her work and all at once the spell was broken; she had been granted a reprieve. There yes, she rubbed the ache there, in-between the eyes, kneading it to milk the tension away only to find that the burning was contagious and had slowly flushed her entire system with spasms of feeling. Within that split second she became all too aware of bodily needs. The pain was more than severe so her knees buckled and she fell back, away from the easel, away from the varnishes, the glazes, the rags, the paint tubes. She landed in a crumple on her futon mattress, the only other furnishing in the closet sized dwelling.

“What is this? Why is this? What day is it?” her intellect demanded. Her stomach, a hard knot, clenched and burned as if eating its way out of her. She blindly pawed at her body but felt nothing more than a series of lumps that seemed to be horribly brittle and sunken. She wanted to have a look in the mirror but no matter how hard her mind commanded the body to move its only response was a series of shudders- it just shivered in its huddle of bone and flesh on the bed. She laid like that without concept of time, with no other thought in her mind but the concentration needed for each breath taken and released.
--
Sparrow had successfully scavenged enough supplies to last them another month but it had taken longer than usual which added to his growing concern that soon there would be nothing left to salvage. How then would he continue to feed and clothe himself and Dove? He had dreams of seeds, of clean water and warm fertile soil to grow beans, tomatoes, carrots, celery, potato, squash and more. But the only food he had ever known came from a can and even if he had access to seeds the land had been left parched and toxic years before he had entered the world. And still, Sparrow had more immediate concerns to deal with. He had been gone for how many weeks? He hoped desperately that Dove had managed to keep away from her painting.

Sparrow’s footsteps were harried and faltering in his rapid efforts to propel himself through oil slicked puddles. As he hurdled through alleyways, fingers of rusted barbed wire clawed at his coat, and he pushed himself harder, jolting through a maze of abandoned buildings. The concrete and steel behemoths were infested with a plethora of strange folks, street urchins, squatters, and who knows what other remnants of the human race—all struggling to survive.

Why was he so worried? He had carefully packed away all her art materials before leaving on his hunt. Dove had promised to do her best to resist the calling she would inevitably feel. It had all started out simply enough, hadn’t it? They had found each other early on before either of them could speak more than a few words. It was a miracle they had come this far alone together, pitted against a self destructive and decaying world. Still, they had endured and Sparrow wasn’t about to give up now, even if their woes had begun to extend far beyond the dangers of the streets out into a great and unnerving mystery.

But it wasn’t all that mysterious if one considered Dove and her habits. She always did have a need to draw. Sparrow had seen her first doing it on concrete, using the end of a burnt piece of wood to furiously mark out spirals, eyes, planets and a great number of other things they had no words for. As they grew together so did their interests and ambitions. Sparrow himself had always been a tinkerer, enjoying the thrill of improvised creation and invention. Dove continued to draw more frequently until she eventually began doing it by impulse no matter the situation.

One day when Sparrow was down scavenging in the lower Warf end of what once was the great city’s epicenter, he came upon the ruins of a school. Anything of value seemed to have already been long since looted or destroyed by the moist and salty costal air. Yet as he had sifted through the rubble, things of color and shape began to catch his eye. Pieces of canvas they were with great swooping lines of jade and indigo making up the form of a hillside green with pasture. The next was drawn out in a frenzy of red scribbles that seemed to magically conjure up a detailed portrait of a young woman naked and posed as if reaching to the stars. There was more of this, much more and so he began to collect piles of these drawings, rolling them up all together as one to take back to Dove.

Sparrow had spun around with an ecstatic spirit, thrilled to run back and present Dove with these gifts, but in his mad dash his foot caught on something hard. Falling forward he broke right through the rotted board of a closet only to reveal a great many storage tubs. With shaking hands he opened each container in awe as he began to see tubes of color, marvelously elegant brushes of all different shapes and jars containing important looking gels and liquids. Sparrow also found a great many pieces of pure white canvas stretched firm and taunt over wooden bars sealed tightly in protective plastic. The newness of it all gleamed and sparkled. He felt he had truly found a treasure trove.

When Sparrow presented the loot to Dove, her face lit up like a lantern, and she gleefully sorted through the tubes of pigment. He helped her set up the easel he had found once he had replaced a few hinges. Sparrow remembers being absolutely astonished at how quickly and with such ease Dove utilized the supplies. No, she had never seen a paint brush or any of the other supplies yet she seemed to instinctively know what to do with each.

This was all less than two months ago and ever since he watched Dove fall into an existence almost akin to slavery. Day in and day out she poured herself into her canvas paintings. If Sparrow was not there to care for her he doubted Dove’s ability to remember to eat or even to relieve herself. Painting had claimed her very existence almost entirely. When he did manage to pull Dove away from her work she seemed dazed, her jaw slack and her large marvelous eyes roving at a loss even when looking upon his face. Sparrow hadn’t a clue what to do, almost preferring the sharp focused and demon driver Dove then the listless, living dead Dove that he was confronted with when he pulled her away from her work.

It was early morning, the sun just beginning to break the steely obsidian skin of the horizon, revealing a harsh and jagged skyline full of building remnants and swirling entities of bonfire smoke. The oddly prehistoric silhouetted forms of burnt out street lamps jutted every stretch of pavement like teeth serving as mocking reminders of a failed and ruined way of life. Their home, the abandoned water tower, was planted in one of the few plots of land void of large forsaken buildings. Sparrow snaked his way through the graveyard of junk that was piled high and deep, past old decomposing car shells, tires, broken furniture, computer equipment, stereos and televisions. The climb up the rusting side ladder to the tower was completed quickly and without thought or fear of the height.

Normally Sparrow would pause once he got up the ladder to the door in order to gaze out on the wasted cityscape. He always felt that while there was a great ugliness present in the world they inhabited, there was also a profound sense of restorative slumber. The world “civilizations” might have toppled under the weight of their own greedy and reckless behavior, but he truly believed the earth itself was lying dormant, healing and waiting for some sign, maybe even someone to inspire her to adorn the globe once more in life eternal. He had to believe in such things otherwise there was nothing left for him and Dove other then rubble and decay. Still, this was not a time for a moment of deep breaths and hopeful dreams. He was frightened and shivering like a hunted rabbit worried about Dove and how she coped with his absence.

When Sparrow opened the door to the tower there was no sign of Dove herself. With a shock and surge of great terror he noticed that the easel was back up and the canvas painting that sat upon it looked to be completed. The tiny bulb of a room the water tower provided for them was filled with a surging glow of every color imaginable all seemingly emitted from the canvas. He fumbled around fighting for the willpower to keep his eyes away from the mesmerizing whirl of sensations in order to search for Dove.

“Sparrow….Here….The Bed….So glad…So glad” Dove gasped, using the minute amount of strength left within her to reach up and caress his hand.

Sparrow’s entire body clenched in horror as he felt Dove’s hand slip into his own. It felt as though he was holding a paper thin bag of bones. He kneeled to cradle her waif thin form, resting his cheek next to her pillow. For some time they lay like this together communicating without words through the locking of their eyes. Dove’s eyes were vast and full of a strangeness Sparrow struggled to identify. Even in her obviously sick and wasted state Dove glowed with an eerie shimmer of potential; her beauty akin to the flowing grace of the sunset filled sky-precious and fleeting. In that moment he knew he couldn’t keep her. Dove was already drifting away, her essence only lingering to gaze the way she was with every grain of her being at him. Dove was smiling as she breathed her last rasping breath.

Yet before Sparrow had time to let a single tear escape something blew like a shockwave filling the tower with a harsh pulsating light so bright he could momentarily see through his own flesh to the curves and contours of his bone. The light continued to surge until all was lost in an endless expanse of white. Sparrow was left alone. Dove’s form disappeared with the rest of his world. Yet in some strange sense it was fitting to him. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be a part of a world without Dove.

“So, why am I still here?” Sparrow pleaded, his hoarse cry rippling off into a chorus of echoes, stretching out to eventually lose itself in the great white. And
as if in answer to his plea, Dove’s painting appeared before him, hovering at eye level. For the first time since Dove had begun her masterpiece Sparrow allowed himself to truly behold the painting without the clouds of worry and fear for her well being to dull his senses. It was a thing of mesmerizing beauty, the detail so intrinsic and the colors so alive he swore he could taste them.

Sparrow began to comprehend the subject matter, it was what the art books would label as a landscape yet it was much more than that, so lucid it felt more to him like a waking dream trapped in rectangular form. In the very middle stood their water tower taken over by a wild spiraling of vine boasting a plethora of ultra violet trumpet flowers. The plot of surrounding land was void of the rusting multitude of rubbish, replaced by a smooth even pack of rich chocolate tinted earth. The horizon stretched on and on, the jagged dilapidated buildings that once made up the skyline were gone and replaced here and there by a lacing of misty ever green trees that parted to reveal the tips of the coast that possessed an ocean glowing emerald and gold in the setting sun.

The stark white emptiness of his surroundings compounded the life and promise within the painting that continued to hover like a dream before him. Furthermore, he could feel the essence of Dove radiating off of the painting like the summer sun. Her spirit held him, caressed him and eased him closer to the work of art.

“It’s all done now, Sparrow. Please look after it, care for it. It’s yours.” The voice of his Dove breathed and exuded the words like the most precious of gems and Sparrow smiled joyfully, suddenly aware that she was waiting for him within. Without hesitation Sparrow leaped into the painting, each brush stroke remaking him whole until he stood once more atop their water tower, gazing into the realness of Dove’s great transformation. He scurried down the ladder eagerly kicking off his worn shoes to plant his feet deep into the warm and supple soil. Bittersweet tears of loss and renewal flowed freely down his astonished features as he saw and felt Dove in every drop of life eternal around and within him. And look! There were his tomatoes, and there carrots, squash, cabbage and more.

Sparrow tore his eyes away from the patchwork of his great garden and spied an assortment of confused yet overjoyed huddles of people dotting the landscape here and there as far as his eyes could see. He understood now. Dove. She had done all this. The world he saw, felt and breathed was an exactment of her masterpiece. Dove’s vision was that something, that someone, the catalyst for the forgiveness and return of Gaia, Mother Earth.

Sparrow’s heart sang with inspiration as he began his trek to the nearest group of fellow survivors. He understood that a lot of work was ahead of them and he was full of motivation, savoring thoughts of community, harmony and the return of man to its sacred role of caretaker to the land. And yet Sparrow couldn’t help but wonder just how many worlds man would burn through before The Great Balance was finally actualized.
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Print release, new WC paintings and news

Hello All,

I just released 3 more of my 1st edition 4"x 6" art prints for sale on etsy from the Goddess In All of Us body art series. Check it out:


Goddess In All of Us body art photograph
Queen Omega
By Chelsea Rose
4" x 6"
First Edition fine art print on photo paper, sealed in a crystal clear archival envelope.
signed by the artist
On sale now for $10 here.


Goddess In All of Us body art photograph
Shamaness
By Chelsea Rose
4" x 6"
First Edition fine art print on photo paper, sealed in a crystal clear archival envelope.
signed by the artist
On sale now for $10 here.


Goddess In All of Us body art photograph
Wise Woman
By Chelsea Rose
4" x 6"
First Edition fine art print on photo paper, sealed in a crystal clear archival envelope.
signed by the artist
On sale now for $10 here.

.....I have 20 or so left of these 4"x 6" 1st edition prints that i intend to slowly release for sale online. So there is more to come!

In other news, this weekend was a nice one spent relaxing at home watching Samurai 7 (the old black and white movie and then the new anime version also.) We did some watercolor painting, took a nice hike in the local woods, baked some home made samosas, went out to lunch for Tom Kha soup with our friend Dr Bob, worked on more art projects...you get the idea! Still, the weekend somehow seemed short.

here are a couple scans of the watercolor fun:

3rd Eye Navigation
4" x 6"
original watercolor painting
by Chelsea Rose


Succulent
4" x 6"
original watercolor painting
by Chelsea Rose

I am also working on a short story to submit to a fiction writing blog party a friend of mine does once a month. You are supposed to submit one story 2,000 words or less by emailing her a link to where you posted it so that she can feature the writing on her blog along with the other participants. This is just what i need to keep myself writing. Deadlines actually do help sometimes! I have my story all written out but I am still over the word limit by a couple hundred so i am looking to trim it down. i will be posting it once its all done. Content hint: my story is based in a post apocalyptic society with an accidental hero that remakes the fate of the world through her painting. I hope it isn't a snooze! You ll tell me the truth, wont you?

I am also pretty close to being done with crafting a publishing proposal/cover letter to send off to a few publishing companies that i have in mind. I would love to get my Goddess In All of Us body art photography book picked up by someone like Chronicles books but i cant wait for that to happen, i have to seek them out myself.
In the meantime i have been submitting my Goddess In All of Us series to local art galleries in Portland Oregon. I have gotten back some very encouraging responses however most of the galleries seem to already be booked through all of 2011 and a lot of 2012. Im also going to begin approaching out of state galleries but it does seem that Goddess shows will have to be a thing of the future. Wish me luck!

So thats whats up in my current realm of existence.
Much love and many blessings,
-Chelsea Rose
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Psychic Eye painting, new silkscreen shirts, ribbon dreads, apron

Lots of new stuff to show off this morning.

Firstly, i finished a painting over the weekend:

Psychic Eye
14" x 14"
original acrylic painting on canvas
by Chelsea Rose

Also listed two new Lucid Optic Lab creations:

New silkscreen print shirt!
Purple Perception Mandala silkscreen print
hand designed, hand printed

Women's long sleeve shirt
92% cotton
8% spandex
size Medium
Bust 30"
selling for $20 here.


Evolve Mushroom silkscreen print
hand designed, hand printed

Women's stretchy long sleeve shirt
95% cotton
5% spandex
Size XL
Bust: 39" un stretched
selling for $20 here.

I also wanted to show my new dreadly adornments:

Over the weekend i tied in some green and purple ribbons. Now that i have added in those psychedelic wool dreads + ribbons and beads I am really starting to feel they are extensions of my spirit. I had kept them plain for a long time so that they could be considered acceptable at work but i found 90% of the time i was wrapping them up so they were out of sight anyway. So i decided to go ahead and start adorning my locks. I feel they are becoming a thing of art, which i love and can truly feel with my soul!

In other news, check out my new apron:

My dear friend Dr.Bob kindly sewed it up for me. It was made from a vintage dress i found at the goodwill bins awhile ago. Strangely enough this is my first apron. Wearing an apron while painting was something i hadn't considered doing until recently when i realized that everything i owed has some amount of paint on it which was making it very hard to dress for work. I knew i wouldn't actually use apron unless it would be interesting enough for me to want to wear it. I think this apron is the one! I have it hung right before my painting table so that i have to walk by it to get to my easel. lets see if i can manage to remember to wear it!

So thats all the "newness" i have for you this Monday morning.

However, today is Marten Luther King Jr day. On the way to work I was listening to the DemocracyNow broadcast( listen to it here ) in which they were doing a special focusing on his anti war, anti violence and anti profiteering stance. Many of his words which he spoke about Vietnam are still extremely relevant to today's world affairs. I especially enjoyed a quote he recited during his "Beyond Vietnam" speech:


"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -JFK

Peace n Love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Goddess Body Art photo prints for sale plus hike into the forest with new dready roots

Can I Interest you in one of these, perhaps?


I have a whole box of em, see?

I intend to slowly list 3 a week for sale in our etsy store.
$10 each. they are First Limited edition prints signed by me on the back! Sealed in a removable crystal clear archival envelope for protection.

So far i have listed the following two for sale:


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose)
4"x6" signed print on sale for $10 here.


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose)
4"x6" signed print on sale for $10 here.

Onto other news....
I didn't do much on the productive side this weekend other then take some of product photos above of my prints. But i did get a lot of exercise. I went on a 4.6 mile hike up into the mountains to visit some of the amazing water falls! see?

( photo by Lucid Optic Lab )


Also my dread lock birth month is January. They will be two years old on the 25th so I splurged and bought some hand made wool dreads to add in for more length and interest. Here some more photos of em:



( photos by Lucid Optic Lab )
They were lovingly hand made and customized by The Dread Goddess herself who has a shop on etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/DreadGoddess Check it out!

So thats about it for now. They say its going to snow tomorrow. We shall see.
How was your weekend? any adventures?

Best wishes,
-Chelsea Rose
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New Pen and Ink drawings

Hello all,

I have been getting back into the habit of drawing and wanted to share with you these two new pen and ink illustrations I did this week:

(original pen and ink drawing by Chelsea Rose)


(original pen and ink drawing by Chelsea Rose)

With the cold and darkness of winter it seems I have fallen into a bit if a routine involving a lot of time cuddled up on the couch with my cat, my man, my sketch book and movies. Although recently I have been watching not much else other then episodes of Doctor Quinn Medicine woman( I love that show! I am so glad i can get the episode discs from netflix), Full Metal Alchemist( such a strange story line!) and X files( of course.) Recently I have found that i feel a lot less guilty about sitting around on my rump so much if i happen to be doing some drawing at the same time. So yes, I am sure there will be more drawings soon enough.

I was looking through some pictures files the other day and came across this photo:

This was taken during last summer. Right-now in winter with all this cold and dark it is strange to realize only a few months ago our lil patch of world was so much hotter and brighter. The weather report claims snow for Tuesday and Wednesday, we shall see about that.

Anyhow, I cant even begin to tell you how thankful i am that its Friday.

Do enjoy the weekend.

Much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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A peak into the Art Room and Projects in the Works

Happy New Year!

I am doing my best to channel my Solstice/ New Year faery guide, The Master Maker who warns that in this new year creative problem solving is required of me and that I must do whatever I do as well as I can. And then make it even better. The Master Maker reminds me that my very best work is always desirable, and in the present situation, it is necessary for success.

So, over the holiday weekend I enjoyed using the time to work on projects:


this is a 14" x 14" acrylic painting i am working on. May still change the direction of some of the coloring and shapes. We shall see!

Danny was also busy working on a new art project:

He is hand painting a new screen for a new ebru/screen print project.
This screen will print the outline of this design.

So there is your peak into our messy lil art room.
How was your New Years? What tone and intentions have you set forth?

Much love and many blessings always,
-Chelsea Rose
Lucid Optic Lab
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