New painting, Rainbow Roots + giant Ebru marbling

It was an art-filled two days off, which always makes for the most refreshing of weekends.

I managed to finish a painting i have been working on:


Rainbow Roots
14" x 14" stretched canvas
Original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose

....I started this painting one night with the need to paint without plan or even thought. I let my subconscious come out and man the paintbrush and watched rather amused at the various shapes and creatures that came out.
I did change it up a lot after the initial out pour:

...if you compare that to the finished one above, you'll see what i mean about changes. But all in all, this painting was very fun to paint. I gave myself no rules or guidelines and just got to "play" and express. I hope to let myself do more of these spurr of the moment paintings- it was a nice break from my usual tight/planned out creations.

Meanwhile, my other half ( and often Better half) worked on a project that he has had up his sleeve for months now- a GIGANTIC Ebru( turkish paper marbling) project:

This is just one snapshot i took of about a billion of him throughout the creation process. He built a huge container for this project out of wood which he then filled up with thickened water so that he could float acrylic paint on the surface, manipulate as seen in the photo above through "combing" and then take a single mono print of the effect via paper. Yesterday he made two such prints with different colors and designs. The thickened water should stay good for about a week so he has time to make a bunch more prints. In the meantime this huge container has taken over the dining room so we have been eating at the coffee table :)
....more info with photos on this will be posted as the project progresses!

And a couple snapshots of me bouncing around the artroom:


I did some digging around and cleaning out in the art room which lead me to the discovery of a big stack of some of my very old art- some dating back to elementary school years! I posted some of my better old artwork finds on the art room closet couple with a few "inspiration" pieces from other artists. All this lead me to even go back and look at old sketch book journals- its really fascinating to look on old artwork and see how your style and technique has changed through the years. Its comforting to see my own creative evolution and realize that it shouldn't ever stop morphing. I am interested to see what my art will look like in a few more years!

...and a dready update in front of my art room inspiration wall:

My dreadies have gotten a bit longer i think! My dreads are back to the same length my hair was before i dreaded the locks up. Shrinking is normal in the maturing stages of the dreading of ones hair so i am pleased that i have finally been able to get past all that and see a bit of growth, even if its only slight! The henna color I put in a month or so ago is almost completely gone and i am thinking about doing it again- it felt soooo good on my scalp and the red made me feel like a Celtic fiery maned huntress :P

Anyhoo....we harvested a bunch of the Basil we grew from seed on our patio:

isn't it purdy?
We made a pesto sauce out of it which we ate over cheese tortellini with roasted garlic cloves- yum!
...Looks like we should probably bring our edibles in from the patio today or very soon before the first frost catches!

And yes, i am already loving October with every bit of my soul.

Best wishes,
-Chelsea Rose
Read More

Wrong Side of the Sunrise, Chelsea Rose spoken word music project with Bone and All

So I must admit i have been rather preoccuiped with getting all my body painting photographs ready for the book i am printing, thus i dont have any painting process photos to share of my two paintings in the works. However i feel both paintings should be done by monday and I will share photos of them finished then.

In the meantime check this out- a treat for the ears:


Bone and All


Wrong Side of the Sunrise:

Take a trip through a conscience, sculpted and refined with mind melting psychedelic tracks created by Bone and All. Each track is its own unique treasurbox, adorned with the poetic spoken word of Artist Chelsea Rose, whos words conjure and evoke strange truths from the depths of the sacred and unknown.

"Wrong Side of the Sunrise" features Artist/Poet Chelsea Rose on five new mind altering tracks produced by Bone and All in the Fall of 2010. It opens with the mystic "My Epitaph", followed up by the backwards zen of "The Great Transformer", then have you breath taken away with "Words From a Predecessor", then really dive deep into the mind of madness with "Thunder in My Head", and finally transcending into new conscience with "Wrong Side of the Sunrise".

Take a listen here.
----

And for those who are interested...here are a few poems that i wrote recently, a couple of which i read peices from out loud for the musical concontion above:

"I am the elated Goddess, wild dancing spirit warrior equipped with the full fledged and precious talons of ...life held close to my sweet thighs, rebounding and evolving with the supple repercussions made in the blooming of this cosmic flower.
My flesh, holding fast and courageous to this world and its enchantment is made sacred and perfect in its menagerie of strange treasure and fruit.
My roots are fleshy and gorged with the sweetness of blood stemming to prove with each rhythmic palpation of my flaming heart, the conviction and blessing of this honored existence.
These bones of mine are an architectural prayer that shall remain gleaming white and pure as the moon, like eternal kernels of truth, long after this slippery soft succession of flesh falls and mates with the dirt.
Sacred and beaming, my song spirals and weaves worlds with voluptuous tendons of destiny- birthing wildly from my cauldron womb, swelling my breasts with the heavy milk of creation.
Know me with your most tender devotion for I am a portal.
My insides, pink and mild, touch deeper still into the void with which we all must pass…
….for I am The Great Transformer.

-by Chelsea Rose"
--------

"Blatant and harrowing the blue smoke climbed umbilical and groping in the shattered light
as a symbol gleaming hot and molten in the shadows of failure
penetrating deep and wallowing into the rotten core of the eye
staring from above which holds so little brightness within
but devours and hordes each jewel like a basilisk
with its talons of thorn, pulped and splintered with vein
within the beast the empty sequence of palpating calculation prevails
holding court a governing insurgence lined thick in mortar and scheming reverie
up taking and dissecting the definition of self and steal atop the brim of strangers tongues
their mouths agape with perpetual strain made stiff and groping at the dust in the swollen air
as maimed pretenders lifting numb the bulbs of their palms to the slate above
groveling in listlessness with pealed and bleached bone
protruding from each scab bound thick and embedded with wounded words
each inky character an illusory phantasm seeking to explain the truth out of the roots and dirt
as patterns speak volumes of chaos and riddle
when the bright plains of golden dawn break warm and frothy above each head
the conspirators lock fang with bounding intent
chaining reason to prescription till no heart gleams without predator forecast
birthing dreams that inscroll with twisted metal
settling over the spilt reminders of all that is genuine
the self claims the cannibal status of a pawn and fool
waiting weighted and exposed to the corrosive embrace that laps thick with eclipsing cages
ensnaring in unison each blind feeler
holding onto broken limbs and vision
groping for that line drawn in murky breath
separating this impalpable undertow
from the chance of manifest truth

the blossom weeps its seeds
floating adrift a glassy memoir
its reflection a towering waif
petals of cosmic reverb lay bent and rigid with meditated grace
a silent kindling of force it dredges up
forming new feathers of transformation
to splay at the feet of the fallen once more."
-By Chelsea Rose
----

"A sign lights the loose window hanging in the heart’s home of heat
Combing the gray interior of riddled pavements
this toothy spectral lights in passing mosaic within
enacting the groveling lament of glory and spoil
forever nimble and eloquent these barbiturates fan the flame
are you thankfull?
Aloof in a riotous hovering, a conjuring steeped and mouthing steam
this moth and its pyre spells the dripping fleet of sky
Nestling in its entanglement of surprised peace
Nourished again by the eclipsing pages of blunder and steal
Holding a cripple- A scolded movement made glassy and taunt
A weapon made crystal and coveted
Will surely coddle this matriarch and her feathered head
Netted again is the same menagerie of blood in vials
Don’t ask to penetrate this door and its oak
The barbs are poised and laden
With the fruit of hallowed horizon
Milky and skeletal in its perfect silent farce
Do not spoil this
Do not
The soft sound of leaves on my bones
Does it not beg the question from my curdled lip?
Like velvet the cocoon is caught up and glows with a fierceness I can’t commune
All of this
In my home of slacken skin and curling mane"

-by Chelsea Rose
Read More

September's Last Thursday Artwalk on Alberta st + work in progress photos

...had a wonderful time yesterday at the Last Thursday Artwalk on Alberta st fair!
We tried a different spot this time ( corner of Alberta and 23rd st )and did really well. Unfortunately we forgot our camera but a friend took some cell phone photos of the booth:


We got to our spot around 1:00pm and set up next to our friend Shauna mama and her mother who makes the most AMAZING home made Tempeh in the world. Danny and I saved a spot for our etsy friend MuseTypes also...so we had friendlies on either side of us. The location was great as well...on our side of the street there were about 5 booths that were very close together so in some way we made a super big booth for people to walk through and check out our wares. I was very happy to see lots of artists out this time( less imports and food carts) so that warmed me :)

I brought some painting projects to work on since we were going to be in our booth from 1pm-10pm. But before i knew it, it was dark and the art walk came to life. I sold quite a few of my pen and ink paintings and a lil bit of everything else( prints, tie dye, silkscreen prints.) This was our most successful art fair so far this year so we were really excited. People seemed a lot more open this time, i had lots of great conversations with curious passer byes, artists and the like. I think this might end up being our last out door fair of the year since its probably going to start getting cold and rainy..so am glad it was an especially good one.

and now a look into the art room and projects in the works:

( check out the lovley headwrap- its a new one! I traded for it. I LOVE bartering. Got it from the lovley Iolithie )
you cant really tell from this photo since its only a snapshot of my easel area but last week the art room got a good cleaning and organizing. I got rid of a lot of stuff i didn't need that was clogging up the creative space + hung a bunch of art and pieces of inspiration that i had kept boxed up for too long. I finally feel like the art room is "broken in" and it feels great to work in there. Unfortunately we had to rip it all apart for last nights art fair so i will probably spend some time this evening putting everything back together again so it will be nice and inviting for weekend art exploits.
and the projects i have been working on:

So far the biggest change made to this work in progress is the background. insitally i had painted it a dark blue/green/purple but it didn't seem to "pop"...so i am working on getting a pleasant warm and glowy aura around my creature instead. i still have lots of blending work to do on the background. I then need to work on the tree/staff/pen...especially to develop the upper branches + add leaves. Then more work on her form. This is so much smaller then i usually work so i have been a bit frustrated with it. The idea of working smaller was that i could offer them for more reasonable prices...but i love working big! Ah well....we shall see how it ends up.

...and here's my other painting i am workin on right now:

I don't think i am thrilled with this at all...but then again it isn't done. It was one of those spur of the moment, super random and unplanned spurt of creative outpouring. It felt really good to paint without thinking or planning....so i had a lot of fun with it. Still...not sure i like it but at least it felt good to paint. The pink is bothering me so that might be the next thing to go.

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend full of art room time.
...more updates soon.

Best wishes,
-Chelsea Rose
Read More

More Body Painting photos and the plotting of self publishing a book

So, I have my fist exhibition of my body art/photography women's study series coming up in December. All of the sudden it dawned on me that i only have a couple months before its show time so i have begun pushing myself into the final stages of the creative process. This means i have combed through the photos of each body painting session and come out with about 53 that i would like to include in a book and for display.

Here are a few yet to be posted photos that i came across and wanted to share:

Body art and photography by Chelsea Rose
From the "Mother Goddess" shoot with Michelle Davis


Body art and photography by Chelsea Rose
From the "Queen Omega" shoot with Deonte


Body art and photography by Chelsea Rose
From the "Blissful Hope" shoot.

....So yes, I have 53 photos selected for possible print( for my gallery show) and for a book that I am completing and will be self publishing. There are a lot of things to consider right now such as how many pages i want my book to be( i am thinking around 50 and that includes title page, introduction and an acknowledgements page.) So i have to go through those 53 and lower my catch to the Golden chosen. Meanwhile, Danny is working on the design and layout of the book and i have to begin writing an intro or asking someone else to write one for me. Once i have that all together i get to take a trip to the print shop and figure out if i want hard cover or soft, what kind of paper to have it all printed on and so on. Then i need to figure out how many pieces i should be printing for the gallery show/exhibition- what size they will be and how i will be framing and mattering them.
My head is spinning a little :)
So thats one big project i am devoting energy towards.
I am also working on a small painting and getting my stuff ready for Last Thursday Art walk on Alberta st which is this week!
Also, i am working on a music project with Bone and All where i am reciting poetry along with the super spacey psychedelic noise. I am not sure when the final tracks will be mastered but i will certainly be sharing when its all ready.
....So thats my news update!
Stay tuned.
-Chelsea Rose
Read More

Spirit Walker pen and ink drawing + painting in progress and new tie dye shirts

This weekend was one of those rainy, stay at home, draw, bake goodies and watch a bunch of movies kind of weekend.

I drew Spirit Walker:

( original pen and ink drawing by Chelsea Rose)
I have made 5"x7" prints of her available on etsy- click here!

and then i hastened to start a lil painting of her:

...work in progress shot of my lil painting. I think its a 6" x 9" stretched canvas piece. I wanted to do her large initially since she has lots of detail and the image is long but realized i had this 6" x 9" to work on. I guess small is better these days because if patron's are interested in purchasing they are generally less then the bigger paintings. But i really do adore working larger and have often dreamed of doing a mural- it will happen one day!

Speaking of big check this out:

A photograph from my body painting series has been hung in the Portland Museum of Art!!!

...just kidding...
I WISH i could print my photos this big and have a place to display them but no. I had waaay to much fun playing with this website.

In other news..... new tie dye creations for sale:

Divine Purple Green tie dye shirt
size: large
bust: 40"
hips: 50"
On sale for $20. check out the shop listing here.

Also done up in Green and Blue:

Green Blue Vortex tie dye shirt
100% cotton
bust: 43"
hips: 44"
also selling for $20 here.

and lastly:

Divine Blue Green Spiral tie dye
100% cotton

Size: 2XL
bust: 48"
hips: 50"

also for $20 here.

Anyhoo....my 13th body painting session of my series was canceled for the 18th and is now on for the 25th. So hopefully some new body painting photos shall be created soon and i shall be sharing them next week.

Peace n Love!
-Chelsea Rose
Read More

Maternity body painting commision, new art prints for sale

Yesterday i did a maternity body painting commission for a local photographer:


His idea was that he wanted a waterfall to come over his pregnant model's shoulder, flow over the breast, pool in the belly where a small/simplistic baby would be present.
...The idea was a clear departure from my usual style which generally consists of flowy/faery/alien goddess creatures so I wasn't sure how i would render this idea. i did some sketching to find my design:

this was the sketch i decided to pull from. As you can see in the actual body painting the waterfall is really the main focus of the piece. I had fun painting it! I started out by outlining all the shapes with black. I then went in and added white highlights to the shapes, then the blue. I then colored in the infant and the sun. Once the sun was in i added some yellow/sun glow highlights to the waves as well. I had an hour and a half to paint it. I wonder how the photographer's shots came out of the body painting. I know he was shooting the photos in his home studio. I will share some of his shots when he posts them.

In other news i listed a new drawing of mine for sale in our etsy shop:

5"x7" art print of original pen and ink drawing
"Tree Maiden"
by Chelsea Rose

Print will come sealed in a crystal clear plastic sleeve to keep it safe. Our prints are made on archival canson artist card paper( has a similar feel to watercolor paper). Makes a wonderful card, gift or decoration.

Print available for $7, see shop listing here.

Also have a new "Perception Mandala" silkscreen print for sale:

Perception Mandala silkscreen
8.75" x 11"
hand printed by the artist onto yellow washed watercolor paper

This original art work comes sealed inside an archival crystal clear envelope for protection.

Selling for $20. check out the sale listing here.

...Thats it for now!
I did have a body painting planned on Saturday but it was canceled and rescheduled for the weekend of the 25th. The model i will be using is of dark skin so it will be another white paint over black skin body painting for my series. She will be my 13th model for my project.
So now that i have my Saturday free i think i will be begin a new painting inspired by a very wonderful experience i have just recently had involving a wise/shaman woman teacher who did a Life time animal totem reading for me which was a very powerful thing. I am going to explore...what my soul might look like. Should be interesting painting project, no? My core totem animal is the Otter but i also am surrounded by my other totems which are the black panther, the snake, the deer, the ant, the butterfly,the swan, the fox and the rabbit.

Have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes and much love,
-Chelsea Rose
Read More

Mermaid Dreams- finished painting + painting process photos

I finished her...i finally finished my mermaid, whom i have been fighting with for months now!

Mermaid Dreams
20" x 24"
Original acrylic painting by Chelsea Rose
$330( see sale listing here )

....I am kinda surprised at how long i took to paint this one! I began painting her on canvas in July but the initial pen and ink drawing that inspired the painting came way way before then:

"Love thy Self"
original pen and ink drawing by Chelsea Rose
Prints are available for $7 here.

......she was a quick drawing that i made last year sometime. Initially i loved her pose and the feelings she conveyed but disliked the drawing. Eventually i decided to make prints available and quickly noted she became one of my best selling drawings.

I also ended up making a pen and ink over acrylic version which was done on masonite for a commision. I created an extra one in yellow... which i still have:

...she is up for sale as well, going for $40. Check out the listing here.

After some time i felt the need to do a big acrylic painting of a mermaid and decided to model it after my pen and ink drawing above.
So i used the original drawing and projected the image onto canvas where i traced the basic outlines to create the framework of the painting.

A snapshot of the paintings humble beginnings:


...this shows the very first layering's of color i began with. I was still in the "feeling things out" stage at this point. If you compare it to the finished product a bunch of these changed!

....as you can see here the very first thing i did was restructure the face and remake the headdress/hair. I got rid of the lil bindy and added a third eye instead. The lil "nubs" i had sprouting from the head wasn't cutting it so i added, tentacles, fin like dread tendrils instead- which was a lot of fun to paint because of all the lil loops and spirals i got to play with.

....I took the painting out to a few of the local art fairs so that i could work on her while i was tending the booth. It was this day that i did a lot of work on the tail. As seen here i added a lot more side fin to the lower tail. I was also beginning to contemplate the stark emptiness of the background and was throwing around the idea of adding fish, another mermaid....anything!
I was happy to get a lot of questions and general interest when out and about with the painting but what was most bazaar is almost everyone asked me if i was painting MYSELF as the mermaid. I really had not intended this to be some kind of self portrait but a lot of people insisted on it. This made me smile and remember something someone very close to me said as a lil girl. My mom worked for an old Hebrew mystic who was also an amazing painter( he was very old school and used egg tempera paint that he made himself) and he used to always say to me " A true artist only ever paints themselves," wether they mean it or not- this always made me giggle.

( sorry for this photos horrid quality)
....Here you can see i added big poofy hip side fins and finally began to remedy the "emptiness" of the background with bubbles.
The bubbles started out here and there...and i really liked the depth they began to suggest so i decided to keep them and expand upon them bit by bit.

....the bubbles kept on multiplying. I started adding smaller lil jets of silvery bubbles and made the bottom of the canvas a darker blue to help hint at deep dark sea.
I took the above photo on my birthday- Aug.15 and so the painting sat untouched for quite some time. I was pretty unhappy with it at this point. I felt all the bubbles crowded the image...and i detested the fact that it was now time to work on the hands( my least fave part of any drawing/painting i do.) The painting was pretty much in this same state when i finally promised myself i would finish it up this past weekend- no matter what!
I did all the finishing work in about 6 hours which included darkening the bottom sea again, adding more bubbles, removing some bubbles, adding more shimming light from above, going back into all the of color for one last "ping" of color, going over all the black outlines and adding more spiraling and detail, added a few more spiral tendrils of hair, more color and volume to the closed eyelids, blue to skin and lips( to make her look more like she is in water), and finally the hands( which i spent about a half an hour muttering and cursing under my breath as i worked at them in a frenzy to some extremely horrible and chaotic sitar music...and was very close to having a nervous breakdown. Luckily Danny saved me by turning the music off which kind of broke the spell and i was able to get the hands to somewhat behave finally.)

So yes...she is done! Did i mention i love mermaids very muchly so and they have always been a folk symbol that i deeply identified with? I was drawing bare breasted mermaids when i was 5 and never did stop. I grew up at the beach, lolling in the whiteraff with my legs firmly held together as i pretended to be a lovely flesh eating mermaid hunting the local tourists and surfers.
They will always fascinate me and when ever i am in the water- be it a pool, ocean or river you ll see me swimming fast and furious, legs held firmly together like a mermaid.

Much love and many blessings,
-Chelsea Rose

P.S.
Lots of body painting coming up. This Thursday i will be doing a paid commission body painting with a local photographer. On Saturday i will be doing a body painting of mine for my body painting series. So stay tuned.
Read More