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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Body Painting plans, Political Stencil Art and an Interview

Happy Friday All!
So, quite honestly I wasn't all that productive this week. I did manage to do some pen and ink over acrylic paintings, however they are quite unfinished and i was a bit shy about showing them in their undone state since they are commissions.
However, I have big plans for Sunday- another body painting/photo shoot for my women's study project!

( body painting process photo by Danny )
So come on down to T.Ruth Artspace gallery and hang out/drink some tea and watch as i do a body painting and photo shoot live. I will be starting the body painting around 10am and wont probably be done till 3pm or 4pm( yes it does take quite a lot of time and energy!) I will then take about an hour or two to photograph the result downstairs in front of the gallery's main windows with the model in front of a backdrop.
( body painting process photo by Danny )
This is going to be my 3rd white paint over a dark skinned model so i am super jazzed. It will also be the 10th body painting i have done for the series....and i hope to keep going with this and see where it takes me! I have booked another body painting photo shoot for July 4th. I will be painting a wonderfully charismatic elderly woman. I am very excited to start adding a more widened age range within this project for i feel it important to show that women as they age tend to mature in beauty and energy- their bodies changing to show the signs of a life lived and fully actualized- a profound beauty that i feel should be cherished but that is often forsaken in our society and media. So hang in there- i am aiming on taking this project to new levels!

I also wanted to share some of Danny's recent creations: Political stencil art on records

from top to bottom:

STOP THE 5 WARS! Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia.
WAR IS OVER when the profit stops.
CAUTION-police state.

He also just recently came out with 3 more that i love:

Babylon system is the vampire.


Peaceful Meditation.


Freedom!

I feel they do capture truths about movements within our world right now that have been coming to head for some time. I often feel political art is muchly needed in a time where the media is corrupt- we need to hear each other's independent voices and cries. Its essential for our local and global communities to have dialogue about these things so that we can prepare to enact or jubilantly be inspired to make grievously important changes in our personal beings, live styles as well as governmental affairs. What ever happen to For the people, By the people? or for our constitution for that matter? or our supposed global commitment to human rights?
To see more of Danny's work click here.

Hey! check this out:
I filled out a questioner for a fellow blogger about " Being an artist in a bad economy."
Click here to read the interview.

One last bit of show and tell:

...went out with a box of wild flower seed and romped about after a good rain. i hope the seeds take.
this is the sadly unused piece of land that my patio looks down onto. I want to turn it into a community garden but i first have to figure out how to get in contact with the owner. From what i understand from local rumor...he is a dentist who does not plan to build anything for a few years... land is such a commodity and i feel its essential to make use of- to make food and build community. I personally want to be a lot less reliant on mass production and consumer goods. I hope to become more self reliant and im trying to take steps to do so in this heightened consumersitic society. I find i am greatly encouraged and inspired by other like minded souls who seem to be growing in numbers around the country!

Wish me luck for Sunday's body painting. I am sure my Monday blog post will be filled with process shots and a finished photo or two from the shoot.

PEACE n LOVE,
-Chelsea Rose
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