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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FREE SHIPPING

PDXER is the coupon code that will get you FREE SHIPPING(domestic) with any purchase from my etsy shop!

Thanks for your continued support. Sending love and light! 

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SE Area Artwalk Portland Oregon

So its Monday after a long weekend of art vending. I am bone tired but its that soothing "accomplished" exhaustion so, I am sitting here writing to you, smiling a lot while sipping tea.... reminiscing over the past couple days.

I wanted to share some photos from the 8th annual SE Area Portland Art Walk:


This was my set up. It was the first time I used these free standing grid walls as my display and I really liked it. It was nice having my painting/illustration on one side with my Goddess body art photography on the other. It was more organized, less chaotic and so I felt people had an easier time looking, enjoying and purchasing.


We had a fairly steady flow of people come through our room but I still managed to get in a good amount of painting while sitting there( 3rd floor, Room #326 at Gallery Homeland aka The Ford Building in downtown SE Portland) for Saturday and Sunday ( 10am to 5pm)
I finished the painting I have been neglecting for awhile...I will have to take photos soon and share the finished result later in the week.



Photos of Danny's set up displaying his Ebru(turkish papermarbling), screenprint and ink paintings ( we shared the gridwall as you can see.)


A far away shot of our set up...helps you get a feel for what the room was like. The mind blowing painting on the easle up front is Mark Marasco's( more on him in a bit.)


This is a photo Danny snapped of Joanne Licardo and I, standing in front of her art work. She was one of the 12 amazing artist in our room for the art walk. We share a special connection because of our Venice beach, California heritage. It truly is a small world :)

Danny has a lot more photos plus a "video tour/walk through" of the event to post, so when he has time to upload all that i look forward to sharing more content and coverage of the event with ya.

In the meantime, check out the other artists from our room who became akin to a lil art family:

Mark Marasco - an amazing painter and true friend! His work has been described as "expressionistic surrealism", or what he calls "an experiment in cross-pollination and emergence: emancipated realism". I hope to post photos of Mark and his set up once Danny has all the images cropped and formatted.
Joanne Licardo - (pictured early in the post) amazing oil painter as well as oil painting teacher. I especially love her mandala paintings. She also does some "traditional old master technique" inspired work.

This event was huge with over 200 artists participating all around the SE Portland area. I am truly looking forward to doing this again for next year!

So now that its all over I need to organize my art room. It looks like I let a rabid kangaroo have its way with the studio so excuse my absence for a few days as I put my home back together again and let the dust settle.

Thanks so much to all the brave souls who came out to journey through this massive art walk and support local artists. Your presence and your support is a charished thing and very inspiring. Thanks again and again.

Love and Light!
-Chelsea Rose
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Spiraling Elements wrapped crystal, new body painting web section and art fairs

Hello there,
I cant believe its Monday already.

Check out the new body painting section on my official art website:

Danny was kind enough to flesh out and add in this much needed section to my website. I really love how the black and white +the line work in the photos compliment the design of the page. check it out here and flick on the icons :)

And check out the new wire wrapping job on my quarts crystal:

close Up:

I have had this crystal for years. But awhile ago the old copper wrapping had broken off and i had almost lost my crystal. Since then it sat upon my lil home alter waiting for someone to re wrap her. I'm horrible at wire wrapping so when my dear etsy friend Spiraling Elements offered to do it for a trade i was ecstatic. I am in love with the added fluorite. which is perhaps the perfect stone to compliment my crystal( how did she know!?) because its been known to strengthen the healing and spiritual properties of other stones its paired with, it also helps to ground energy, aids in channeling work and inter dimensional communications!
I feel so much more balance now that i am wearing my crystal again.
Check out more of Spiraling Elements Gemstone and AMAZING wire wrapping treasures: www.spiralingelements.com She also is a creativity coach: http://thecreativityrebellion.com/

In other news, I actually bought a calendar over the weekend because it seems the amount of dates i have to remember are stacking up!
This year we are going to be trying a bunch of new art fairs.
Coming up super quick we are participating in the SE Portland area Art walk on March 5th and 6th. We will have our art set up in the Land Mark Ford building along with 30+ artists. "Over 180 artists, many in 'native environments' will be showing their works and meeting art lovers over the first weekend of March. What a wonderful way to spend a day...wandering around Southeast Portland, experiencing sculpture, painting, jewelry, pottery, photography, encaustic, print-making, textile...almost every conceivable medium for expression. The 2010 event grossed over $80,000 for artists!"- SEAAW
Check out the art walk map here.
We also applied for this year's CraftyWonderland - a huge art and craft show done annually in the convention center. We wont hear back until march wether or not we made the cut so keep your fingers crossed. We also intend on doing a bunch of the art fairs during the summer.
And we totally scored this weekend! An art vending friend is moving to NY so she gave us ALL of her art vending equipment including a canopy( ours was on its last two legs), a bunch of grid wall for displaying art, tables and more. Amazing!!! We are all set. Bring on the art walks!
Is it spring yet? its getting lighter earlier!
How was your weekend?
Have any important art fairs you are awaiting?

Much love and light,
-Chelsea Rose
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May is here- new beginnings!

So its May already? That means my two gallery shows have come to an end. On Sunday i went to InOtherWords feminist bookstore to take down my artwork which had been on display for the entire month of April. Today after work i go downtown to grab my artwork from the Practical Magic show. It was a great month with wonderful opportunities! I'm excited to see what May has in store.
...Speaking of new beginnings Danny and I had our rental applications approved for a glorious 2 bedroom apartment that we have had our eye on for a couple weeks now. Thus...we will be moving in another week! And yes...this does in fact mean i finally get an art room vs an art corner!
So on Saturday we went on over to the rental office and put a deposit down that takes the place off the market. We will be signing contracts come Wednesday...and then the moving maddess will begin!
Danny got a new lens for his camera so i was playing with it over the weekend. Its an 18-55mm ...which is significantly wider then his other lens. The wider lens really allows for more versatility. It can focus up to 11 inches close to the subject...and captures so much more of the suroundings too!
...i also found out that i can actually take pictures of myself using this lense without having to set up a tripod:

so yes...here are a few shots done in the oh so cliché "stretch you arm out far enough and snap your photo" self portrait way. Fun huh?
my dreads are about 16 months old now. they stopped shrinking but they still seem to be getting fatter. cant wait till i finally grow some length.


here is a snapshot i took of danny as he was daydreamin on the couch. He was talking about cutting off his dreadlocks once we are finished moving to the new apartment as a sort of "cleansing" ritual sorta thing. I am going to miss his dreadies. This is the longest he has ever had his hair.

I also wanted to share a goodie i got in the mail on Friday:

My Aunt Char sent me this really cool head wrap in the mail. It was a great surprise and the wrap is super bright and colorfull.
I loved what the label said- " Life is an illusion, dress accordingly."
Thanks Aunt Char! I love it :)

So thats about it! It may prove to be a busy week. We have to find some moving boxes and start packing all the books and trinkets. Im really looking forward to this move. Change can be a beautiful thing.

I wish you all health, happiness and success in this new month!
Much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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The Sea Witch painting, my treasure map and another body painting photo

This week went by oddly fast.
I did manage to finish the painting i have been working for over two weeks now:

18"x24"
original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose
this image is a bit dark( im not the best color corrector. thats danny's expertise) but i wanted to share. A better quality photograph will be produced soon :)
but ya get the idea yea?
I then ended up reforming some of her arm tentacle to be more round and fluid vs angled. I also repainted the third eye to look more animal/reptile/cat-like. I added delicate tendrils to the background steming from her head dress. went over everything with more color and highlights. and then I was done. I finished it last night and took photos so i could share today on my blog.

Now to start on a new painting this weekend!

By the way. this painting was actually inspired by a lil mini canvas drawing i have listed in my etsy shop right now. here she is, the original sea witch:

Sea Witch
4"x5"
original acrylic + pen and ink painting on canvas board
by Chelsea Rose
selling for $15
( comes with its own mini easel )
to view the listing or to buy click HERE
so check out the shop for more of my original mini canvas pen and ink paintings!

I also wanted to share with you my "Treasure Map":

i went to a wisdom circle at T.Ruth Art space(Portland Oregon) last weekend...
this time we were led through a "self realization and actualization" meditation that involved forming a goal or want in your mind...and then creating what they called a "treasure map" where you piece together with magazine clippings... what you want to manifest in your life.
it was fun. i hung mine in my lil home art studio area on what i call my "inspiration wall"
I think this is a great exercise for those who are wanting to exercise their personal power of manifestation. Its a fun project that can be done at home while listening to music or watching a good movie or it could be done in a group setting. But as the wise woman, leader of this exercise had warned us all- be careful what you put on your treasure map because these things tend to eventually end up shaping themselves into our lives!


I took this picture of myself a couple days ago. I had the apartment to myself, was sipping tea and enjoying the feel of the sun coming through the window.
In this photo i am wearing a new choker that i got off of etsy from a really wonderful shop called KMKostumes/KMKDesigns
here is a close up of the choker:

I love it!
We ended up trading for it. I got the choker and she got a print of my "Poetess" drawing : )
I love bartering!!
Be sure to check out her shop...its full of all sorts of lovely costume including hand sewn corset dresses, adorable bloomers, petticoats, bows and more!
...looking at her shop makes me want to play dress up.

So thats it for now!
I will leave you with a picture of a quiet weekend moment:

making breakfast in the morning before rushing around portland.

Much love to all, thanks for all the support!
-Chelsea Rose
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Love show Redemption and more

Last night I got a call around 8:00pm from Ben Pink the Gallery Director for Launch Pad. He let me know that he was able to get my painting taken out of the explicit section of the 5th Annual Portland Love Show and hung elsewhere around the main walls. I am so happy to know this! I am curious to see where it ended up hanging. Maybe Danny and I will go venture over there soon so we can take a peak. But its VERY good news. and i really appreciate the help and support i received from Ben Pink. I hope he didn't have to go through too much to move my painting.

Also i wanted to share some photos that Anni Becker( an amazing photographer + artist and absolute sweet heart!!) took of Danny and I when we visited The Space, art collective in Vancouver WA:

I talked briefly about visiting The Space in my last blog but i felt i wanted to say a bit more.
We visited The Space on Valentines day. There were home made cup cakes, lots of friendly smiles, good vibes and art creating all around. Danny and I went in and we were introduced to the "community art supplies section." We then grabbed pieces of card board which we painted with tempera while talking and hanging out with Anni and Kelly as well as the other amazing artists in the space. it was so uplifting and cozy. I'm so glad that places like The Space exist! They just opened up and so we were able to come and have a peak at the space they have and envision with them all the awesomeness that can be done with the studio. Its a work in progress, but it already feels like home.
After we were done there Danny and I drove back over to our neck of the woods to participate in another Wisdom Circle at T.Ruth Artspace.
Its really wonderful that we have managed to find such amazing communities to partake and be a part of up here. I cant wait to see where all of this leads to because i am already seeing the changes within my self and my artwork.
Im waiting for the last of the chill to dissipate so that we can begin to participate in the Last Thursday art walks again. Danny and I have been creating like mad so we should have plenty of new stuff to show come time.
As for my show in April at In Other Words Bookstore so far i have painted a total of 6 new paintings that i will be able to show alongside the rest of my work. I last night i started a new painting. Process pictures will be shared soon! I have also been approached to put in a few pieces for a show in April called Every Day Magic- more details soon to follow!

Best wishes and much love,
-Chelsea Rose
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Finished paintings, wonderful art events, failed experiments and more

So, this weekend I managed to finish the painting I have been working on:

"the Reckoning"
14"x18"
original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose

I guess I managed to paint this piece in lil over a week.
Check out some other snapshots from the creative process:

(roughed out the background)

(outlined the main creature/subject)


(working on adding color to the creature and putting a posse of like creatures behind the main subject)
....its fun to document the creative process and be able to look back and see the artwork at its various stages. i think this has helped me really form a great procedure for pumping out artwork from my heart.

In other news Danny and I attended the 5th annual Portland Love Show artist reception on Friday night. There was over 350 artists who ended up participating and so it was really a site to see- sooooo much artwork everywhere! It was really amazing to see materialize into a show. The gallery where the artwork is hung is called the Olympic Mills Commerce center( 107 SE Washington st.) and the place was huge!!

here is Danny hanging out with his love show submission. His is the white mandala over blue and purple watercolor. I think the wall that his artwork was on was probably my favorite wall. He shared it with some pretty psychedelic/spiritual artwork, not to mention two mermaid pieces that i loved!

This is a shot Danny took of our collaboration piece- which is one of the body painting shoots from my photo shoot that Danny artfully photo shopped and colored.
see it big here.

Unfortunately my Love thy self painting was put into the explicit section of the love show which i think undermined and misrepresented the intent of the art and its truth. I didnt even know they were singling out artwork to be displayed separately and i was uneasy with the idea of my faery/goddess painting being hung along some of the art that was highly sexual.
i talked to Ben Pink the gallery director of LaunchPad and he was really understanding and helpful with everything. Im waiting to hear back whether or not they can move the piece to a different location.
crossin my fingers.
...just has made me think a lot about censorship lately, that of the naked human body. it think its important to take a critical look at society and the things it has named taboo. Its so strange that in this society violence is much more accepted in our mainstream media & art vs nudity & love. i think its time to reexamine ourselves, our beliefs and our comfort zones and get to the heart of things.

one step forward,
two step backward,
down inna Babylon

as far as valentines day goes:
Love thy Self
Know thy Self

Danny sold three out of the 5 pieces he had hung in the Culture Control show! Not bad at all for his first time displaying his artwork in an art show. He is already on his way to creating a bunch of new work and we are really having a wonderful time participating in the local art events.

It was perfectly wonderful fun to drive to Vancouver on Sunday and hang in the new art space ....The Space, fueled wonderfully by some of the amazing artists of Guerrilla-Media. It really was a treat to paint/create with such a wonderful art family.

Much love,
-Chelsea Rose

P.S.
Oh! and for those of you who were wondering. I didnt end up doing a body painting/photo shoot on Saturday. I had my model cancel. Hoping to make up for that this coming weekend on the 20th.
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Discovering Self: Body painting photo shoot + New painting and Works in Progress

During this week I have been trying to get caught up on all my painting projects while simultaneously getting more of the shots from my last body painting session ready for posting.
So far, so good.

Here is a painting I finished on Monday:

14"x14"
Original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose

As far as getting some more of my body painting project photos edited, here is another one for your viewing pleasure:

"Discovering Self"
body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose
Model: Amata

This weekend on Saturday at T.Ruth Artspace(2403 NW Thurman) I will be body painting my 5th model. I'm interested to see how that materializes. If you are in Portland Oregon, feel free to stop on in. We will be there pretty much all day starting at 10:00am and ending around 5:00pm.

Speaking about works in progress, i started on a new painting:

This background was done on Monday as the varnish dried on the "Blossom" painting.
Im enjoying these really simplistic, semi impressionistic backgrounds vs my usual one color gradation backgrounds. For this one i was going for an "at sea sunset" kinda vibe.
hope that translates.
Last night i managed to outline the subject onto the background:

Now its time to start laying the foundation colors, mapping out the creature's basic color palette.

So thats it for now. More updates soon though!

Peace n Love,
-Chelsea Rose
ChelseaRoseArts.com
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4th body painting photoshoot! + pics from Myth and Legend show

So this weekend was intense as predicted.
On Saturday i did my 4th body painting photo shoot with my model Amatta inside T.Ruth Artspace(portland oregon)
As seems to be the way it goes we started painting at 10:00am and didn't finish till around 3:00pm. Then we photographed till 5pm.
So far i have released two finished shots from the session:


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose)


(body painting and photography by Chelsea Rose)

....As per usual my model and I had a great time up in the loft at T.Ruth Artspace as i painted away. Danny took a few process shot photos for me to share:


....I had run out of the paint i had originally used for my other 3 models during my last shoot, thus i had to use a different brand this time.
Instead of using snazaroo( which i couldn't find anywhere in Oregon) I ended up purchasing some Ben Nye face/body paint from a costume shop. Its a bit more expensive then the snazaroo but it seems to go on pretty nicely, also staying on a bit longer before beginning to crack and peal. I think i am still a fan of the snazaroo paint though.
...I think i am finally getting the hang of this body painting stuff. I say this because i was able to have enough time, during this session to stop and eat some lunch. This helped greatly to keep my energy flowing and when we were all done i didn't feel like a bag of bones/zombie.
I have two more shoots scheduled for this month. One for this weekend on Saturday, and then one next weekend on Saturday.

On Friday Danny and i went to the Myth and Legends art show artist reception and we were really impressed with the group show! I have three pieces in the show. It was neat to see where they ended up hanging my work:

Here i am standing with my Fae, original acrylic painting


Hangin out with my painting the Fish of Perception.
....Looking around at the artwork that was up you would have never guessed that this was a non juried art show. The artwork that people submitted were really intriguing interpretations of the theme "Myth and Legend". This was the first Myth and legend show and they plan on doing it Annually now since this was a great success.
The current show will be up for a month:
Myth and Legend
February 5-27, 2010
Artist Reception First Friday February 5. 5-9pm
North Bank Gallery
1005 Main st.
Vancouver, WA 98660
360-693-1840
11:30am-430:00p tues-sat

Danny and I also were able to get our artwork ready and submitted to the 5th Annual Portland Love show on Saturday, so that is another thing we were able to scratch off our list of things to do.
I loved Sunday. We got up and cooked a big breakfast of potatoes eggs and beans, sat around a lot and watched movies, i also managed to finish a painting( which i will take pics of today when i get home) and started a new one!
All in all it was a wonderfully productive weekend.
....and it feels like spring up here in portland! even the flowers are confused and shooting up green. Lets hope it stays that way.

Much love and best wishes to all!
-Chelsea Rose
ChelseaRoseArts.com
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