Curious Gallery and FaerieCon West

Hello! So, I’ve been a busy bee this last month. I was part of a fantastic local show organized by Lupa called Curious Gallery.

Curious Gallery PDX 2014 logo graphics, by Fennec Design

“Long before public museums became a feature of many cities, private citizens in Europe and elsewhere formed their own extensive collections of scientific specimens and cultural artifacts meant to educate and inspire their beholders. A longtime collector of natural history specimens, Portland artist and author Lupa wanted to increase awareness and appreciation of wunderkammern (“wonder cabinets”), or cabinets of curiosity, and their eclectic contents. Curious Gallery is the result, a weekend of exhibits, presentations, hands-on workshops, and special programming for lovers of taxidermy, natural wonders, and strange treasures old & new.”

– from Curious Gallery PDX website

This exhibit contained all sorts of curiosities. It was as if H.P. Lovecraft helped to curate a natural history museum. Loads of taxidermy art, objet d’arts arranged from wood and moss and bones, art boxes filled with lovely and horrid treasures, jewelry created from scorpion claws and beetles, and lots of intimidating and beautiful metal art. Plus a full line up of entertainment, lectures, and workshops on a myriad of interesting pursuits. I was privileged to be amongst the 2D artists there. It was a very successful event for me, and such a stunning experience. I must congratulate and thank Lupa Greenwolf & Stephen Couchman (organizer of GearCon) for producing such a magnificent show.

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FaerieCon West is in but a few weeks! What makes this even more nerve-wracking than usual for me would be the fact that I am on a panel this year! Why did this happen? My boss thinks my tears are delicious.  I’m stoked to be giving the talk with the illustrious and endlessly fabulous Maxine Miller. The talk is “ART & SPIRIT: A conversation with Maxine Miller & Valerie Herron” and will be 4:00-4:45pm on Saturday, February 22 in the Mythic Forum Area 3.

Secrets

Happy Wednesday, All. As promised, I am going to commit to updating this thing at least once a week. So what’s going on in Mystic Media studios today:

I CAN’T TELL YOU! Normally I would post about the process of my projects, but I’m in the process of working on a top secret painting. I will let you know this, however. It will be mixed wet media, much like my Crowley poem series, and I was fortunate enough to have the gorgeous and talented Sushila Battagione to model for this painting. I’m hoping to have it finished by the 1st of July. Stay tuned!

the lovely Sushila Battagione – photo © Scott Belding 2013

**NOTE: Does this lady look familiar? That’s because you probably know her either from her artistic excellence in producing Raqs Oubliettes or from her many services and workshops via her health spa Oracle Wellness. If you are unfamiliar with either of these enterprises, I insist that you check them out immediately!**

I was so pleased to receive so much positive feedback on my thesis post, I was even quoted in The Wild Hunt (WHAT?) Thank you guys for taking an interest in my art and taking the time to tell me what you think. And thank you all for being so forgiving about the offensive amount of typos in my mini dissertation! I basically sat down and typed it all out in an hour, so it was naturally rife with mistakes. Meh. Thankfully my actual 50 page thesis paper was coherent and beautifully copy-edited.

Enough with the face-saving. There isn’t much else new and exciting going on around here. I did get to visit with my dear friend Sean who blew in from the midwest this week. We went to The Lovecraft and caught up a little bit. I brought my sketchbook and drew in the dark. C’mon, that isn’t nearly as pathetic as reading a book in the club. Is it?…

Lovecraft sketching

Lovecraft sketching

OH YEAH, it was my birthday on Sunday. I had a wealth of birthday wishes, my best friend Kelli took me out for dinner, my boyfriend organized a surprise goth pool party for me (for realz) I received 2 birthday readings and my dear friend Maxine Miller gave me this AMAZING cimaruta. Maxine is the artist that designed this cimaruta for Raven Grimassi‘s line of witchy products. I was stoked to get it from the artist herself ❤

My Cimaruta by the amazing Maxine Miller