The Queen West Art Crawl

My biggest goal for this year has absolutely been preparing for the Queen West Art Crawl. It was to be my first art show of my life, and kind of a time for me to figure out whether or not its realistic for me to keep going with my artwork. The whole experience has been a bit of a risk but also an adventure. I spent the summer working away at some pieces and this is a post about how it went.

Its kind of hard to see them with the glare of light on the glass (Scott did a great job!). But here are my two babies. They took a lot of time and a lot of hard work. Each piece took 1-2 months to create.

This piece is called Baba Yaga and is based on a Russian fairy tale about Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave. In the story a young girl named Vasilisa is cast out of her house by her wicked stepmother and told not to return until she has a light from the witch Baba Yaga who lives in the forest. Baba Yaga is the goddess of dirty jokes by the way.

Vasilisa ventures into the forest and comes across three horses, the white one brings in the dawn, the red brings in the day and the black brings in the night.

Vasilisa meets the terrible Baba Yaga and is given a set of tasks to complete, these tasks seem impossible except for a magical doll that Vasilisa has that her birth mother who loved her, gives to her and the doll helps her complete the tasks. She is awarded the light and ventures home, however the light is placed inside a skull and upon arriving home the skull turns itself on her stepmother and engulfs her in flames.

This story is a message of using our past and the love and experience of our ancestors to forge a new path in life. And that the frightening things we experience are what lead us to new light.

This piece was purchased by Psychologist Dr. Paul Kelly of Clear Path Solutions and will be displayed in their offices.

My next piece is called The Dollhouse and it was purchased by a wonderful couple with an amazing art collection, Sharon and Fred Kroft. This piece is entirely open to interpretation and the only thing I want to tell you about it is that it is very dark at the bottom and gains more hope and light as you move upwards. One visitor at the art show said I have an obsession with upward movement. This gave me an 'a-ha' moment. All my life I work towards developing and reaching my full potential. Its amazing the subconscious things that appear in artwork. I was completely unaware of this.

Each room tells its own story and has its own adventure going on. Much of the piece was about my own experience exposing myself as an artist and a lot of the insecurities I experience with that.

Both pieces sold within the start of the first day and I have requests for new pieces that I have to get to work on. So its back in the studio for me. And by studio I mean guest room. As each piece takes over a month I had better get to work. I have one in process that I am going to finish up too.

All my love

xoxo

Rachael Speirs

This is my 'im in shock' face.