Mythic Worlds 2015

On Wednesday of last week Greg and I hopped on a plane into Seattle, Washington where we were picked up by Julie Baroh of Krab Jab Studios. While driving from the airport to the hotel I noticed that on the floor of the back seat next to me was a portion of one of Virigine Ropars dolls. I hadn't realized that I was going to have the opportunity to see her. The doll above is titled H21.

Virginie, like Greg and I, was one of the fifteen invited artist guests to the Mythic Worlds Convention that was due to take place over the weekend. Virginie and her friends David, Yoann and Claire had arrived extra early from Brittany to teach some classes and explore Seattle a bit.

Meanwhile Greg had an Artist as Brand workshop sponsored by Tara Chang Larson at the Krab Jab studio that took place on Thursday and Friday. Krab Jab is located in the Old Rainer Brewery Building which is now filled with live work lofts and several other types of businesses including an artisan chocolate shop called Frans.

Mythic Worlds, previously called Fairy Con West, felt like a mini version of Comic Con with a very woodland myth vibe. The cosplay was pretty spectacular with many artisan vendors who supplied the crowd with all the items that woodland creatures need for the evening masquerade balls. This fellow above seemed like he was the perfect mascot for my ivy perfume Hedera helix.

Unlike Comic Con, Mythic Worlds is very rooted in music with a Shadow masquerade ball on Friday night, a Light masquerade ball on Saturday night and a concert on Sunday night. During the day the music playing in the exhibit hall was Loreena McKinnett and similarly inspired sounds.

As guests of the event Greg and I each had a booth as well as presentations and a workshop. The class I led on Saturday titled Discovering Scent: Aromatic Energies and the Four Elements. I had a surreal moment at the start of my presentation when I looked out at my audience who was comprised of ladies dressed as fairies. Auspiciously there was a fairy for each element!

Our two booths were side by side and pretty simple, I had brought my two pop up banners with my little domes sit up on the table. We brought the Chiaroscuro banner that is normally in the workshop in Agoura, which serves as a nice backdrop for photos. Julie lent me a some horns to display my lockets which worked perfect in the context of the show.

Greg with one of his favorite models Jessica Lough (Figure 1: Noir).

On Saturday, as I was assembling all the essential oil samples for my presentation, George R.R. Martin (author of Game of Thrones) arrived with his wife Parris. They were headed up to the Cascade Rooms to hear a presentation titled "Why Are Strong Women in Fantasy Still A Surprise?" with Holly Black, Laurell K Hamilton, Charles deLint and Deborah Schneider.

We packed up our booth just as the show ended and zipped to the airport just across the street, but first we had to get a photo with our beautiful and talented friends from Brittany.

Favorite perfumes at the event seemed to be a toss up between Sierra Solid Gold and Q (the tree fragrances) and perhaps Chiaroscuro.

Although I was not able to take photos with my Canon because my battery died I did occasionally breakdown and use the I-phone, hope you enjoyed this little window into a Mythic World.

InSpire

Greg made hair appointments for the both of us on Saturday, thus reluctantly I left the studio with no clue how much fun the day would hold.

Our adventure began with breakfast at a little French cafe in Venice with Greg's art buddy Jeremy who brought along David, another English artist. As we sat sipping our teas and talking art I began to realize why I love LA, particularly the west side so much.

From there we strolled down Abbot Kinney, under the brilliant sunshine and cerulean sky, to my favorite source of inspiration Bountiful. As always the store is deliciously arranged to produce mouth dropping splendor.

Self portrait, before the hair cut.

After our hair appointments we have some extra time before heading back over the hill to pick Eve up. Thus we took advantage of the invitation by David to come see his art. David and his wife live in a refurbished 1940's California bungalow which they refurbished. It's the epitome of Venice Beach, California with a fabulous studio in the back.

David and Greg discussing one of the large scale paintings.

One of my favorite paintings, among many, is this one above. It is a portrait of one of the bridges the city wants to tear down. I wish Los Angeles politicians would work on preserving historical sites as much as they work to empowering builders and lining their pockets.

David also has an interest in plants. We spent quite a bit of time in his backyard learning about Cycadeodia, a plant that lived along side the dinosaurs. Among his large collection of Cycads he had New Orleans oak tree moss artfully arranged in several locations. When we realized with great regret we needed to get on the road he gave us two plants to bring home. They are so going like my natives and fit in perfectly with the silvery greens of the artemisia and sage.

It was a really fabulous day and much needed getaway from making and packaging natural perfume, which I need to get back to right now.

Images:
Photos ©Roxana Villa
Cycadeodia engraving from caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de

Comic Con: Around the Booths

Normally while at Comic Con I spend much more time wondering the floor and checking out what friends, artists and fellow comrades are working on. These year was a little different in that I didn't get out much except for early mornings before the doors of the hall opened.

Tara McPherson, one of Eve's fav artists and a great example of Artist As Brand.

The Hi Fructose booth had a super nice display with lots of high quality printed books

and oddities to tempt you.


Cool, suave retro design by Ragnar. His 320-page retrospective book Eponymonstrous is published and available through Brand Studio Press.


Over at our old stomping ground, the Allen Spiegel Fine Art booth
Barron Story taking a break with Clair McKean.


The yearly lego display featured Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

Who needs to leave the booth when you have fine folk like Jeff Soto coming by to see us!
Jeff, pictured above on the left, has a really great painting in the Survey Select Show
down the street on Imperial at the Wonder Bread Factory. The painting is titled Matterhorn.


Sometimes the views outside the hall were just as interesting as inside.
Check out this fellow his pants match his artwork!

The Dawn

Tomorrow we journey south to San Diego for the Survey Select: Narrative Art Show opening. I will have a new botanical perfume on display as you enter the multi-sensory extravaganza. The show consists of 65 hand picked artists from all over the world, mostly painters.

When I was invited to participate in Survey Select I recalled a composition reaching back to March 2008 with a challenge by poet Heather Ettlinger. Heather invited fourteen perfumers to interpret the Ezra Pound poem titled In the Station of a Metro. At the time the perfume was all theoretical, although I had begun a few sketches in the form of accords.

For Survey Select I have resurrected the formula, made several alterations and now present it a new. The original image that my husband, artist Greg Spalenka, created to illuminate the perfume has also been revamped.

In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
~ Ezra Pound

The new perfume and image is titled "Gracing the Dawn" referring to three nature sprites,
"apparitions" which have descended on a wood bough. The sprites have arrived to ignite the Spring, to bring light to the dark. Originally the perfume was titled The Three Graces, however, research indicates that another perfumer is using that string of words.

Orchestration of the fragrance began with a dark base consisting of three separate accords. Some of the accords are found in other perfumes, particularly GreenWitch. The heart of the perfume is composed of sweet woods for the "bough" harmonizing with rich and delicate floral notes representing our triad of sprites. The three main floral notes are Rose, Jasmine and Mimosa. The wood and Mimosa bring warmth to deep base. There are a myraid of exotic essences in this composition, including Cestrum nocturnum, Night Queen, from South India. For the dawn, which reveals these luminous deities to our eyes, I've chosen bright top notes of citrus and ginger.


I had my daughter whiff the fragrance and she proclaimed "Purple! This smells like a perfume for a sophisticated lady. A good addition to the line since you don't have anything like it."


There are velvety violet notes present in the aroma weaved in with the woods. The perfume is of another era, you will see (smell) what I mean when you experience the aroma. If you are keen to sample the fragrance please stop by the show. Soon I will list vials and flacons for sale, but first, samples will go out to a few bloggers and the select members of the Faery Circle.

Gracing the Dawn is part of a new series of perfumes in collaboration with Greg Spalenka's Flowers of Fortune limited edition art card series and scratch off game. The cards and perfumes will soon be available online and at Comic Con in San Diego. Our booth this year at Comic Con (The San Diego Comic Convention) is number 5553. I admit to feeling a small rush of excitement at the anticipation of Comic Con.

“Survey Select” premiers with a private event at the Wonder Bread Factory located at 1440 Imperial Avenue, San Diego, CA (14th and Imperial) from 6pm to 11pm featuring a full bar, tasty treats, live music and off course arts and artists from all parts of the Earth. The show will be on display Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm each day with a full calendar of events.

Related Post: Narrative Art Exhibition.

Gracing the Dawn illumination ©Greg Spalenka.

BEE up: My turn

“To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being.”

~ Tom Robbins

Aligned with inspired artists from all over the world today's post is one of a whole. Begun on June 24th, arm and arm with the Holistic Beekeeping post on the Etsy Storque, a Blog it Forward: BEE up was birthed. My esteemed Etsy Artisan Gallery Team members are celebrating the honey bee by bee-ing part of this chain of posts. The festivities also include handmade marvels and Etsy treasuries.

Round and round we go, the earth spinning in the middle of the universe, while we humans attempt to learn the mysteries of life. Generation after generation, comes and goes and yet it seems that very little wisdom from the plant kingdom is honored. One such example is that of the plight of the little European honeybee.

I just read recently in the UK Telegraph that in 1910, Britain had a million bee hives; today that figure is 250,000. In 100 years while, the human population explodes, we have a loss of 75% of our main pollinators. I'm sure this is good news to big corporations like Monsanto who want to control the worlds food supply. In the meantime, a few conscious humans are choosing to affect the pattern. Like Galadrial states in Lord of the Rings "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."


Like many of my Artisan Gallery team mates I too created a special item for this event, albeit I've run into a little snag in having it ready for today. I'm working on an edition of prints based on the bee image I did back in August for the Bee Here Now blogging event.

The bee image began first as an acrylic painting on gessoed board done in the same process as my illustration work. Once the painting was finished I scanned it and began to add layers in photoshop. The new image was recreated from scratch beginning with the original scanned image. This time, conscious that these would be high resolution prints, the image was created much larger. I also changed the parchment paper layer and Victorian embellishments.

The challenge with having it ready today is that our Epson printer has decided it does not like to print on the real fine Arches water color paper I purchased for this project. Since today is a national holiday, heading out to buy some high grade Epson paper is regrettably not an option. Sigh...thus we will have to wait until Tuesday for the edition of prints.

In the meantime I invite you to enjoy the sweet nectar my fellow teamies have crafted for you from their own hands. Yesterdays Blog it Forward Bee Up was by Estella on her Star of the East blog, tomorrows will be by fellow compatriot Irene of Aroluna posting from her blog.

Images
The opening collaged image began with an antique type case and three wood characters, from there I added some of my team mates items:
1. Tiny honey bee necklace in silver by Lulu Bug Jewelry in Santa Rosa, California
2. 2 Bees tiny tray stoneware pottery by One Clay Bead in Ashville, North Carolina
3. Baby Hare Polliner Soft Sculpture by Dragon House of Yuen in Edinburgh, Scotland
4. Madeira Citrine Sterling Hammered Earrings by Stein-Schmuck Design in Basel, Switzerland
5. Old Art Engraving of Antique Entomology by Slinkymalinkicat Latvia
6. Handmade Fabric Wasp/Bee Brooch by Blue Terracotta in Lyon, France
7. Your Childs Artwork Brooch by Betsy Bensen in Portland, Oregon
8. Honey Bee Ring by KathiRoussel in Buffalo, New York

Many thanks to the Artisan Gallery Team for their support, I am humbled by their contributions and generous spirits.

Narative Art Exhibition

I am one of the contributing sixty five artists at the Survey Select Narrative Art Exhibition. The event has been organized by art lover/promoter and designer Mark Murphy. Over the years Mark has organized many events with artists including the Heaven and Hell collaborative exhibition, held at the Abbey church in San Diego, (which included 110 paintings, fashion show, belly dancing, burlesque...) The piece I contributed to Heaven and Hell is titled H2 Illuminated.

My training as a conceptual illustrator is evident in how I formulate and conceptualize a natural perfume. Perfume becomes another tool of artistic expression. Creating perfumes with pure plant material brings me closer to the plant world than creating drawings and paintings. Albeit I still love making visual imagery.

Instead of illustrating for magazines, books, etc. now I create narrative perfumes. Olfactory stories, illuminated perfumes, working intimately with prima materia, plant matter. Shortly I will share about my contribution to this project, in the meantime make sure to RSVP to opening on July 15th.


Image by Kevin Paulsen, one of the talented artists participating in the show.

New Brow Perfume

Natural Perfume is like the New Brow art movement.

Indigenous: Part Two

After our visit of the Cochasqui pyramid site we headed North toward Otavalo, set in a valley surrounded by three volcanoes Imbabura, Cotacachi and Mojanda. On Saturday is the infamous outdoor market with the indigenous Otavaleños, famed for their textiles.


From seventy surrounding villages nearby native people come to this market and sell their beautiful handmade wears. Besides the large central square titled "Plaza de Ponchos" artisans have set up their booths on all the side streets radiating out from the square. It was one of these little side streets that Maria dropped Eduardo, Greg and myself off, to our regret in the midst of a downpour. We ignored the rain as best we could and began walking the labyrinth.


Exquisite tapestries, woolens, table clothes and clothing in brightly colored hues vied for your attention. Eventually we hooked up with our other clan, Eve, Ivan and his savvy sister.


Thank goodness that most of the items were not in my color palette, or else I would have spent a fortune! I made out with a gorgeous, alpaca poncho and a detailed embroidered teal purse for myself. Most of the time I was assisting Eve and Greg with finding items in their colors and patterns. Eve was the most fortunate since items in her brightly hued palette were there in abundance.


At one point Greg brought me over the the "food" area where vendors sold an array of items including spices, herbs, ice cream and a host of local food. Eve was a little freaked from one booth with a hanging pigs head, so we moved on.

We ate a late lunch/early dinner at a little cafe called Buena Vista, meaning Good View, indeed the view of the market below was terrific. While Greg and Eduardo made inquiries over some supposed "pre-Columbian" artifacts, Eve and I ordered a vegetable lasagna, salad and fresh lemonade. By the way, the lemonade in Ecuador is spectacular.


Something about the town and the market reminded me of San Telmo in Buenos Aires. Perhaps because San Telmo has a large antique market in an old central square lined with cafes? That must be it, because the color, architecture and items for sale have nothing in common with the antique marketplace in San Telmo.

We all piled back into the cars and headed toward Quito, where another adventure awaited us in the morrow.

El Dorado

“The Artist as Brand” workshop began on Monday, June 29th, lasting five consecutive days. This workshop, or taller as it is called here in Ecuador, is the reason we were invited to come here to this part of the South America. We have been staying at the “Hotel Quito” located in what Eduardo has referred to as the Riviera of Quito, just on the edge of a mountain with a spectacular view. During the term of the workshop we were picked up by Eduardo or one of the gracious students. The journey from our hotel to the school was usually a bit of an adventure since we are located up in the mountains and the school is located down on the valley floor in CumbayÁ. The road down to the school is termed “El Camino de Orellana", referencing Francisco de Orellana. This road is the historical route that led Orellana down to discover the Amazon in 1541 in search of El Dorado and the country of Cinnamon.

Each day the workshop began at 5:30pm and ended somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30pm. There were about forty very interested students in the class with a diverse range of artistic talents. Almost every single attendee understood English and could speak to a certain degree. To make things easier on the students Eduardo would translate everything Greg said.

On Monday the workshop began with an introduction of the course followed by each of the students sharing the first draft of their “personal vision” statement. Greg then ended the evening with a multi sensorial presentation of his creative path from the early days up until this moment.

Thus, each day the cycle repeated itself, we would journey down to the University hours before the class for some sort of interesting activity. On one day Eduardo took me to meet the head of the Botany department so that I could ask questions regarding the historical use of native plants. The head of the department was unable due to an allergic reaction from having been bit by a dangerous snake in the jungle. Thus another teacher in the department showed us around and very graciously answered many of my questions. In the evening after class one of the students would take us back up the mountain to our hotel, sometimes stopping at a local café for a late night snack.

Witnessing each student evolve their personal vision statement was a fantastic experience. I commend each one of them for digging deep into the heart to find their El Dorado.

The last day of the workshop I presented my path as a visual and aromatic artist. The first portion of the visual lecture featured slides of early artwork leading to freelance work as an illustrator in New York City. All the imagery had been organized as a keynote presentation with transitions and quotes. The second part of the display delved into the path to Aromatherapy ending with Roxana Illuminated Perfume. After the visuals were over I shared a sampling of essences used to create botanical perfume progressing from base, middle and top note and then ending with the perfumes.

It was exhilarating to hear the positive response to the presentation, the essences and the perfumes. The favorite fragrance appeared to be Sierra in both the liquid and solid format, although every single perfume had its own fan base.

The final closing ceremony of the workshop was a drum circle facilitated by Greg. We made many beautiful new friendships and alliances at the workshop and look forward to observe how these students use the tools shared to manifest their own personal creative visions into the world.

More from Middle Earth, including a visit to the Botanical Garden of Quito, Pre-Incan Ruins, the Artisan Market at Otavalo and our trip to the Amazon jungle...stay tuned!