The High Priestess, Tarot Show at Splendorporium

I have been getting involved in more group shows lately. I find themed shows very helpful in challenging me to draw and paint outside of my usual conceptual directions. One such recent group show that I participated in was a Tarot card themed art show at Splendorporium Gallery in Portland Oregon. I have always been drawn to Tarot cards and other divination tools so I was super stoked to pick a Tarot card to paint in my own style.

 I chose to do The High Priestess Card:

(9"x12" Original acrylic painting on wood cut by Chelsea Rose)

Here is what a standard High Priestess card looks like: 

So yes, I took a LOT of liberties in making this card my own. But I did keep some aspects the same, like my Priestess( who bares a striking resemblance to the caterpillar from Wonderland) is blue, while the card has the priestess in blue robes. My priestess also sits on a throne of sorts, but they are huge purple mushrooms. I also incorporated the black and white towers into my painting. And instead of having my priestess hold the Tora, I have her holding another book of knowledge that has a down pointing triangle( which is a symbol of the sacred feminine) which I adorned with an all seeing eye. 

All in all, it was a great deal of fun getting to research the meaning behind all the symbols present in the card and It has me really considering doing an entire Tarot deck in my style!

And here are a couple photos from the opening reception at the gallery: 

It was very interesting to see other people's interpretations of various Tarot cards. Some were literal kinda like mine because they incorporated some of the traditional symbols from the cards, and others were very abstract. 

Here is a photo of my friend Darci, Silly.Wierd.Things card:

She did "The Moon" Tarot Card and I think it came out beautifully in her style. 

And here I am with my painting at the opening reception. As usual I am too short to manage a photo with my art that is not entirely awkward :) 

The show is up for the remainder of the month so go check it out if you are in Portland!

Blessings, 

-Chelsea Rose 

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Future Shock Body Painting

With my art show at Future Shock coming to an end as the month of September culminates,  I felt a live body painting session inside the gallery amidst my art would be lots of fun. And it was!

(this work in progress photo was taken by Tony. Thanks Tony! )

The body painting took a lil over four hours to complete. My model Caitlin Sparkle Jackson was very patient and sweet about it. I was very happy to be working with her one last time before she moved to Hawaii at the end of this month. She is one of the most fearless models I have had the pleasure of working with. (Our first shoot together was for my Earth Goddess body art series, where she ended up posing in nothing but my body paint, in the snow! That takes guts! Photos of that shoot can be seen here.)

Once the body painting was complete we began to shoot, using my art show inside Future Shock gallery as a background environment.

Here are some finished photos:

This one might be my favorite shot, despite the fact  that it does not show off all of the body paint. I think I am especially loving this photo because she is completely surrounded by my big acrylic painting "The Last Mermaid" so it gives the sense that she IS one of my goddess creature ladies who has just stepped right out of one of my paintings.

It was not intentional, but I had a few people tell me that the body painting reminded them of Kali, the Hindu goddess of change. I could not agree more! Between the blueness of her face, Caitlin's dark curly hair, and her head dress( she said she bought it at Country Fair and that its a hand made piece by Neman's Commedia Mask) she really does resemble Kali in some ways. After looking at the photos I stopped on this shot, where, to the right of Caitlin is my own acrylic painting interruption of Kali which I call Goddess of Eternal Change. I love the synchronicity!

All in all, we had a blast and I am very happy with the colorful results. I hope you enjoy these photos also.

With Love,

-Chelsea Rose 

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Chelsea Rose Art Show recap and photos

So my art opening at Future Shock was lots of fun and I wanted to share some photos of it with you!

Here I am a bit gussied up for the opening night, posing with my mermaid door painting before the show started.

And here are some photos of the walls before it got crowded:

The artwork was hung by Danny Ebru, who has a fantastic eye for arranging and displaying art. He also took these photos. Thanks boo!

The show featured 55 of my original paintings.

Out of the 55 paintings displayed, 8 of them were collaborative works with other local Portland Oregon artists who are dear to my heart. The photo above, shows the "collab" section of the show featuring collaborations I did with Darci (Silly Weird Things), Danny Ebru, SKAM and RX Skulls.

Out of the 55 paintings, 27 of them were newly created pieces, most of which I had kept hidden from the world as I feverishly painted them the month before the show.

 I was very excited to get to debut so much new stuff at the art opening! The remaining paintings on display were "select works" from previous years that I felt deserved more time in the spotlight.

The new and old paintings were intermixed on the walls which I was initially a little nervous about, but in the end I think it worked out really well.

(Mike of Future Shock gets photo cred on this one!)

And, though I am not sure its apparent from these photos, I was happy to hang my canvas paintings alongside vinyl records, skateboards, blocks of scrap wood, doors and other found objects that I painted. So there was also an element of using recycled material for painting on, which we butted up right next to more of my traditional "fine art" supports formats like canvas.

What makes me even more pleased was that those that came to the show seemed to really dig the art:

We had a fantastic selection of beautiful souls cruise in to take a look at my art. With 12 original pieces sold I was ecstatic! 

People were also totally into the custom screen printed shirts Future Shock made specially to commemorate my art show. The shirt features a pen and ink drawing of one of my newest paintings that I debuted at the opening. 

Shirts are on sale for $20 at Future Shock or you can buy one( or check out more photos of it) in my online shop here. And yes, in case you were wondering... that is in fact a big MearOne painting next to my t-shirt display. His painting guards the entry way into the Future Shock Gallery and I am honored by its presence!

And I even sold out of the hand made sticker packs I put together for the opening! 

But have no fear, I made more sticker packs and I now have my own lil rack in the retail/record store section of Future Shock. 

And yes, you simply must stop in the Future Shock PDX sometime this month since my art will be on display all of September. No excuses! Even if you are far you must find a way to visit even if its via astral projection or stolen extraterrestrial teleportation devices. 

Much love and gratitude,

-Chelsea Rose 

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The Portland Goddess Show

I recently got the chance to put together an art show that featured goddess inspired artwork by some of my favorite artists in the Pacific Northwest: Laura Borealisis, Justin Slattum, Liv Rainey-Smith, Nicole Linde, Joanne Licardo, Matt Schlosky, Sam Arneson, Danny Ebru and many more.

The concept for the art show had all started with the want to promote The Portland Goddess Calendar:

--This super beautiful calendar that Danny Ebru and I self published features amazing local art that depicts and honors the sacred feminine. And is available for purchase here! --

But as the event began to take shape it became much more then a calendar release party. We scored a massive venue to hold the show in and began to plan big: lots and lots of artwork, murals, live music, live body painting and more.

And look! I got to paint my first ever big wall mural, right along side two amazing and kind artists:

Sam Arneson

and Matt Schlosky.

We painted the walls in such a way that the designs would frame the artwork once it was hung...and I LOVED the way it all turned out!

Here are some photos from the show( click them to view larger):

Check out this close up photo of my favorite piece in the show, a collaboration piece by Sam and Matt called Gaia, an acrylic painting on multiple wood panels.









The event was blessed with three amazing local music makers:

Gaea, which is made up of a electrified cellist and a beautifully strong and vibrant female vocalist.

HeadShapes, a band I fell in love with while visiting an artist collective in vancouver in previous years. Their music is made with live looped vocals, and instruments creating a nest of sound and vibe that makes me feel like I'm floating in the strange loveliness of infinity.

Queen Bead, a local reggae/dance hall poet/shamaness

And of course I did some live body painting.




I had a ridiculous amount of fun painting live, big big thanks to my brave and lovely models Bran and Dawn :)

....And I think plenty of other people enjoyed themselves also.


This photo shows pretty well the nook I did live body painting in, accompanied by a super friendly and talented sculptor guy who had his own nude model to work with.


...and we had a great turn out too!

So yes, The Portland Goddess Show was a lot of hard work that quite a few inspired and generous souls came together to produce. It was certainly a learning experience in many ways and 100% worth it. And I couldn't help but share some photos and tidbits from the event with you.

Next on the agenda? Spending some time turning inward with my energy, embracing the urge to hibernate and spend many a cold rainy day at home painting, writing and working on music projects with my love. And I STILL haven't shared with you my recent explorations in the the realm of street art...so that too, and soon I hope :)

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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New drawing and the Portland Love Show 2011

This weekend was both relaxing and exciting.

During the relaxing part i drew this and watched movies:

(pen and ink drawing by Chelsea Rose)

and the exciting part of the weekend was The Portland Love Show 2011 !!!
Here are some photos from the opening night:

My mermaid painting and I flexing our third eyes at the opening party. There was so much art to behold!


Here I am admiring the placement of our Goddess In All Of Us body painting photograph. Danny and I put it in as a collaboration under our company name Lucid Optic Lab. I painted the model from head to toe with waterbased body paint. He did the amazingly seamless photo composite/retouching as well as directed the model in her arm posing as i took photos. The finished work of art is a true labor of love and artistic collaboration between the two of us. I feel we got one of the best placements in the show so we are just thrilled and inspired by it all.


Here is Danny standing in front of his Ganesha Ebru mono print/silkscreen print piece. He had a great spot too, right above the artwork that was on this year's show flier. It really stood out!


The opening night was packed! People were everywhere and it was an eclectic mix of souls.

I urge you to check out the show! Its at Gallery Homeland. They keep regular business hours. For more info go here

For those who are far far away and cant make it or perhaps want a taste before treckin on over Danny took a video "walk through" tour of the entire show for your viewing pleasure:



Hope you enjoy!

Love and Light,
-Chelsea Rose
Lucid Optic Lab
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