New painting and new news

I finished this painting in January and have been meaning to post a blog about it for a long while now, but the universe had other plans. So here we are!

"Urban Goddess"
12"x16" original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose

She started out as a pen and ink sketch on canvas:


And then I added the first layers of acrylic color:


Worked out the details:

 Worked to add some highlights and shadow to the sky. Fogged out the cityscape to give it a bit of far away depth.

So thats my newest painting!

Lets see...what else is new?

I got some new post cards printed:

Its double sided.  Aren't they purdy!? Danny Ebru designed them for me. One side for my acrylic painting and the other for my body art photography. So for those who are planning on making a purchase or two from our online shop will be seeing these in with their orders along with a goodie or two :)

Speaking of body art, I recently released another photo from my "Earth Goddess" photoshoot with the lovely Asima:

This body painting and photo shoot was done in the Rooster Rock nudist beach and trails situated along the Columbia River Gorge.  See more photos and read about the experience here. I am excited to feel the end of winter, as spring has just begun to wake up here in Portland. Plans are being made for my next "Earth Goddess" body art session and I can hardly wait. So keep a look out for updates on that score.

To pass the wintery hermit time I have been playing with screen printing more and more:

Here are some still wet off the press screen prints over adhesive vinyl that I hand painted with acrylic to get the yummy colors you see.

...and here they are after being dried and cut out. I am selling these stickers on etsy now. Check out the sticker section of our shop! I have also been playing with screen printing on fabric again so there may be some shirts and tote bags popping up soon.

So thats my update.

Thanks for the continuing support and inspiration, world!

Sending love and light,
-Chelsea Rose 

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Art Market , Up Coming Gallery Shows and More

So, my face is a lil burned from all the sun we had over the weekend. My good sense was over ruled by my body's thirst for the warmth of sun on my skin...but i will survive!
Had a nice two days down at the Portland Saturday Market during which we debuted Danny's Ebru Screen print work for sale. Check out our setup with the addition of more art:

So far we have gotten a great response towards the new prints for sale!
We are at the Portland Saturday Market selling art every weekend, come say Hi and check out our work if your in town.

I have been using the time spent sitting at the market to do lots of drawing:

....Now if only I could find the time to scan and post all this new work!

In other news, I am very excited to be showing a few of my "Goddess In All Of Us" body art photographs in this wonderful group show:
"Body of Work-contemporary perspectives on the human form."
Opening is 1st Friday May6th 6-9pm
@ The CODA gallery in SE Portland.


See you there?

With Love,
-Chelsea Rose
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The making of Perception Mandala screen print + more

Made it to Friday not without a few bumps along the way...but here we are. Another weekend is on its way. If only i could motivate myself to finish my Mermaid painting....she is almost done, i am not sure why i have had no interest to work on her what so ever. I guess i will just have to chain myself to my painting table till its done this weekend! We shall see...

Danny just recently created a new silkscreen:

Blue Perception Mandala silkscreen
8.75" x 11"
hand printed by the artist onto green washed watercolor paper
-Just listed this print into our etsy shop for $25. check out the listing here.

This silkscreen was created using the drawing fluid/screen filler method of production instead of the photo emulsion process. Personally i much prefer this drawing fluid method and had used it in creating my first two silkscreen prints: "The Goddess in All of Us" and "Behold."

What is super cool is we were able to fully document the creation process for the "Perception Mandala" drawing fluid silkscreen.
Check it out:

The first 6 photos show the design being hand painted onto the screen using the blueish colored "drawing fluid."
The next 15 photos show the design fully painted on the screen and the process of spreading the "screen filler" which is reddish colored over the design and the entire screen.
The next 6 images show how the drawing looks with its coat of screen filler- also shows how the drawing fluid begins to crack as the screen filler dries.
The last three images show Danny rinsing the screen which ,as seen in the last photo, removed the blue drawing fluid to reveal empty screen where the design was drawn.
Thus, the "drawing fluid" resits the screen filler which then creations a workable silkscreen.
Interesting, no?

And here is a print done on a cotton shirt:

This shirt is listed for sale in our etsy shop. Its going for $15. check out the listing here.
....if the shirt is too small, or you want it in a different color and shirt style please don't hesitate to request a custom order!

In other news, we also just listed a new tie dye skirt:



We are calling this tie dye creation " Purple Sky Maiden."
I listed her in our shop last night and she has already been put on hold/reserved for one of our frequent patrons. But have no fear- more tie dye is soon to appear.

More art, coming soon.
-Chelsea Rose
Lucid Optic Lab
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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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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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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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Its been awhile! Lots of updates and Hello to 2010.

Some time has passed since my last blog update...so much that its now 2010! Strange indeed....
Saying goodbye to 2009 was bittersweet. So much awesomeness happened in that year including my first ever solo gallery show, the selling of a bunch of my acrylic paintings + the expansion of my life in Portland and my artistic direction. Still, i welcome the new year with excitement at the possibilities of new beginnings, fresh starts and aspirations. I am truly hoping on finishing a new acrylic painting series by the end of winter in hopes that i can find a spot to exhibited it come summer( details more to come.)
.....i wanted to take a little time here to tell you all that i sold another one of my big pieces just a day shy of the new year.
This is the one that sold:

Yes, the "River Spirit", 18"x24" original acrylic painting has found a good home with a local Portlander.
The woman had contacted me through our Etsy Shop, saying that she lived very close to T.Ruth Artspace where i had my solo show up for 2+ months and that she thoroughly enjoyed seeing my artwork hung up on her daily walks. She said one night she had a powerful dream involving the "River Spirit", and after that really felt the need to buy the painting. Her boyfriend had the idea to buy the painting for her birthday but when he went to the gallery to buy it, it was soon after my solo show was taken down so my work was gone. Instead he bought her a bunch of my art prints through our shop. Still, she wanted the painting and ended up contacting me via etsy. I was able to hand deliver the painting, which was something special to be able to meet the buyer face to face. What a trip! This was very exciting and inspiring for me and has really only renewed and heightened my creative drive.

....I have felt like i have been seriously neglecting all of my various painting projects ever since i started working on my body painting/photography project. So i made sure to use the past 3 day weekend to get all caught up.


....and Yes! I managed to finish my Harpy painting finally!

Harpy in Babylon
14"x14" original acrylic painting
by Chelsea Rose
.....This painting went through a lot of changes during the creative process. if you are interested to see its metamorphosis you can check out the process pictures i store in my "Works on Progress" set on flickr, just click HERE.
...Otherwise I did some more work on the Wood's Man cloak i am painting for my friend. I should be finished with it by the end of this month i believe. This will be my first fabric painting project so i am interested to see how it turns out.

I also worked on starting up a new painting based on this illustration:

...So far i have painted the background purple and projected/transferred the illustration onto the canvas( size 14"x14"). When i get home today i will begin my first experimentation with filling the drawing in with color. Hopefully i can find the time to take a quick picture to document the creative process on this piece too.

.....In other news Danny has pumped out a new t-shirt screen print:


"blue laughing Buddha" screen print
Check out our etsy shop listings: for Him or for Her - now selling for $20
Still in print! please do not hesitate to place an order in your size. If you request it, we will print it.

....I have much more to share but in an effort to keep my posts not excruciatingly long i will stop right here.

Peace and Love for the New year to you all!
Much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Winter SALE highlights and more

So far our Winter SALE is going great and I have a few SALE items I would like to feature today:


on SALE for the Holidays!
original price:$30
on SALE for: $20
white Humongous Fungus screen print
on a purple sleeveless dress
bust 38"
waist 34"
hips 36"
To view or to buy click HERE
...I am super surprised this dress has not sold yet. Its perhaps one of my most favorite Lucid Optic Lab creations especially since it boasts Danny's kick ass Humongous Fungus screen print( which he hand screened himself!) and its purple! It would be mine...all mine if it were not just a tad too big in the bust area. I would really love to see this dress go to a good home. someone who is a mushroom and purple enthusiast- most definitely!




Optical (Eye)llusion screen print t-shirt
on SALE for the Holidays.
original price:$20
on SALE for: $10
Optical (eye)llusion screen print on a light blue small(S) T- shirt
(38" chest)
To view or to buy click HERE
....Yes, another hand designed/hand screen printed exclusive Lucid Optic Lab shirt.
We have stopped screening this design so there are precious few of these shirts left so feel free to grab this one on SALE!

Last SALE feature item of the day:



New item! on SALE!
tie dye skort( skirt and short hybrid)
hand tie dyed with procion mx red, magenta, purple, and blue dye and lots of love.
size:14
100% cotton
34" waist
35" long
to view or to buy click HERE
....not to mention, if the tie-dye tank top caught your eye its also on sale HERE for only $7!

So that concludes our featured SALE items for today. Thanks so much for those who have taken part in our Holiday/Winter SALE! The support is so very much appreciated. Thanks for buying Handmade for the Holidays.
--------------------------------------------
Onto other news:

While I was going through my computer files, trying to be good by backing up my data, I ran across a baby photo of mine. This is my Mom and I. I really love her tie-dye shirt!

Honestly there is not too much going on. I'm still scouring the local art stores for the acrylic paint I like to use. This paint dilemma has stunted my progress on my Harpy painting, unfortunately. But once I get my hands on some more paint I am hoping to make up for the lost time and get it done quick!

Until then I am working on a project for my dear friend Randy Wonder Tooth. He commissioned me to paint his huge canvas trench coat- making it into a super special, majickle woods man jacket for him to romp around in the Wolfcreek sanctuary( beautiful piece of southern Oregon land!) in. So far I have painted the parts I wish to embellish with a layer of white screen print paint as a surface prep. I then projected my Green Man design onto the back of the coat and transferred it. Tonight I begin working in the color!( Wonder provided me with lots and lots of super wonderful Lumiere metallic fabric paint I will try and take some creative process pictures too, since this is my first big fabric painting project ever.

Other then those projects cookin on the side it looks like I will be traveling back to California for the Holidays come Dec. 23rd. I'm very excited to be able to go back to my California roots, see the folks and grandfolks and maybe an old friend or two. It may also be nice to get away from this frigid weather for a week! Only, I really dread flying during the frenzied holiday travel season but I think I will handle it fine, especially since Danny will be coming with me.

Tonight Danny and I and our friends Kelly and Clay will be going to a local Shamanic Journey gathering where they will be using the traditional rapid eagle drum beat and guided meditation( not medication- typo sorry) to loose one another into journeys into the spirit realm. Last time Danny and I did it we were really blown away and had much to think upon. I'm excited to find out what tonight's journey may bring.

So wish us luck and be sure to keep cozy with loved ones on these chilly winter days!

Much love, always
-Chelsea Rose
Lucid Optic Lab
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