So a couple months ago, I submitted a couple paintings to an art exhibition - and while my pieces weren’t accepted, I wanted to share the mini portfolio I put together. Even creating and putting together this mini portfolio - I got to see my story in a new yet familiar way. I was able to see the depth and intricacies of experiencing who I am, in diverse ways - where at times it felt more divine; more of my soul; more of my human nature - and how much I devoured these experiences because I tasted life in all of it.
Artist Bio/ Statement
She Wears Her Heart On Her Sleeve
Every and anything that is a Creation of Mine is borne of my Heart. Maybe my canvases are a direct translation of every and anything that I feel within my Heart ...
But wearing my Heart on my Sleeve is less about what others can see of me and more so that I, myself, can experience the direct clarity of my Heart - all its Layers - with a natural ease. Not always easy to experience - but always felt with great ease.
Sitting here, looking at these 5 pieces of my Heart - I can feel the depths with which I have experienced mySelf in this Life thus far. I can see so clearly how many times I’ve jumped into unknown territories of myself - because I was calling myself forward into a new piece of who I am.
My story ... my themes ... the plots ... who I am has never been a linear experience for me and I’ve never forced it to be. I may have grown extremely fond of paths traversed within myself but when I felt called to something else ... something new, I answered - because I understood that I reached the end of wherever I was going prior. And oftentimes the territory feels widely unfamiliar - being thrown into a new internal world for me to explore.
When I painted AUTONOMY - I looked at it and felt ‘wow’ - I can feel the certainty of It; how viscerally I embodied the Unique Autonomy of Chelsea. The Fire that burned so viscerally in my Heart then - feeling the Knowings of the Known; the Absolutes of the Absolute and the the Truths of the Truth fully alive within my Gaze. More than that - feeling the Way my Being was naturally rooted to the cores of who I am ... feeling the Power of my Innate Goddess and Her Unique Sovereign Nature come ALIVE onto my Canvas - this is what this Painting embodies for me.
Autonomy
Medium - Acrylic on Canvas
Size - 59.7cm x 80cm/ 23.5” x 31.5”
Price - $9,000 TT
And then, then there is LOVE - that captures less of the STAND-ALONE, WILL-POWER OF Autonomy and instead, dives into BELONGING. Here, in this Canvas ... my SOUL flows the experience; the visceral experience of belonging to ItSelf - where I discovered there was something out there that every.part.of.my.being surrendered ItSelf completely too. And yet it was more than surrender ... it was rest ... where every.part.of.me rested in its natural solace. It feels like the Home of all Homes - where nothing is left out or forgotten. It feels like Belonging in its purest form - something that is just there embracing every.single.part.of.me. It feels like something that just wraps ItSelf around every.fibre.of.my.being and I am free - free to breathe with ease because there isn’t a single part of me that isn’t accounted for. This is Love for me - the Home that Houses my Heart.
Love
Medium - Acrylic on Canvas
Size - 50cm x 60cm/ 19.7” x 23.6”
Price - $11,000 TT
... and then there is THE MEETING OF THE ARHCNANGELS - Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel. In retrospect, the painting encapsulates a huge and monumental part of who I am and my life experience. A period of time where I transitioned from experiencing the unique and intimate expressions of my divine nature to exploring more in depth the intricacies of my human nature. And thereafter, experiencing a blending of the 2 WORLDS - creating a new synergy. My divine nature feels like FOUNDATION - foundation within myself; foundation within my life; unique and intimate ABSOLUTES; KNOWINGS that resonate with who I am and my intentions in this LIFE.
My human nature encapsulates the body of my experience; the REAL-NESS and the RAW-NESS of it all - where steadied my foundation - I am free to explore unknown depths and territories of mySelf; of my Life.
The blending of the 2 WORLDS creates a constant and steady balancing of myself - where when need be I can be replenished and renourished by my divine nature; or when I feel disconnected from the World around me I can reach deeper into my Heart and experience a sense of belonging and warmth in my human nature. My divine nature allows my human nature its freedoms but reigns it in when need be - softening the heart when it is hardened by experiences; pours lightness into the heart when the heaviness of life is overbearing.
So why Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel - I guess that this is the message that They wanted to convey through this painting. There is God fully ALIVE & BREATHING; LIVE-ING & EXPERIENCE-ING ITSELF but EVER PRESENT; EVER AWARE of ITSELF - guiding ... catering too ... adjusting ItSelf as it sees fit for the experience.
Meeting of the Archangels
Medium - Acrylic/ Gouache on Canvas
Size - 90cm x 60 cm/ 35.4’’ x 23.6”
Price - $12,000 TT
... And these last two pieces of my heart capture the themes of this past year of my Life - THE OVERCOMING & then THE BLOSSOMING that comes thereafter.
Overcoming and the Quiet Hope that sustains ItSelf in the midst of it all. Overcoming - what felt like mySelf; my own Internal World.
Overcoming - these Layers of a Hardened and unmoving Heaviness that I found myself having to wade through day by day - and the exhaustion that coats the entirety of the experience.
Overcoming - stuck and held within these heavy ... heavy ... heavy Layers.
And yet, in retrospect, I feel that I was physically experiencing the depths of that which I have overcome within mySelf; within my Internal World; within my Life. That my Soul was relaying to me with a physical clarity - all the darkness that I walked through; all the sludge and clutter that I held within my Hands to peer deeply into; all the moments I allowed myself to sink all the way
into the plethora of emotional heaviness - bonding deeply with it so that my Heart no longer cowered away from it in any capacity. Instead, it became a part of me - an integral part of my strength; of my softness; somehow forming the backbone of my human nature.
Overcoming - the Layers that are now Badges stamped onto me. It’s like that chaos of it all; the unending messiness of it all; the stuckness and the stickiness of it all; its adamant nature; the confusion of the heaviness that physically weighed me down; the concoction of the emotions exhausting me - invisible to the Outside World; but absolutely palpable within me not to be escaped for a moment ... All of it - somehow in the inevitable experiencing of it - it became a part of me; a part of Chelsea. Everything that I have overcome ... to stay true to myself ... to never abandon myself.
Overcoming
Medium - Acrylic on Canvas
Size - 50cm x 60cm/ 19.7” x 23.6”
Price - $9,000 TT
And in the aftermath of the Overcoming is the Blossoming - which I feel that I am in the midst of. It feels soft and gentle and gradual. There is no rush. Just this feeling that a Life that has been constant in its motion; its movement through and through me is now coming to a stop ... a full stop - so that I may live in The Blossoming - witnessing and experiencing the blooming of everything that my Heart has to offer unto me.
Blossoming
Medium - Acrylic on Canvas
Size - 39.4cm x 59.7cm/ 15.5” x 23.5”
Price - $7,000 TT
Lived by - Chelsea Avasa Khan
