NEWS, HEAR ALL ABOUT IT
MY 100 DAYS OF GOLD
The 100 Day Project is ending and I am shutting my shop down until Saturday when I can share the last of the project! Tune in on Saturday Night at 7:00pm EASTERN
ART HOP
Also, Friday I will be at Kalamazoo’s Art Hop in Bates Alley from 5:00-8:00pm
THE DEER AND THE NEST
Are home! And you will be able to purchase them at a discount because I don’t have to share with a gallery. I am so excited to offer them at a more affordable price! I hope they find their homes. I spent over 3 months on each of these pieces and prints of them have been shipped all over the world!
The image opening is 20’’x28’’ and the exterior of the frame is approximately 30’’x 38’’, she is a large piece.
After painting moons and luna moths for years, I decided I would delve a little deeper into the Luna. This piece has been on my mind for over a year when I started preparing the panel. Luna is the embodiment of the Moon. The connector of night spirts. The glowing radiance of the night. The partner of the Sun (Sol).
Painted on a speciality professional birch wood panel. Painted over a handmade, textured ground. This piece has buried gems, crystals, a fused glass leaf, broken glass, 24k gold, and handmade watercolor. It is sealed.
This piece is ready to hang on the wall as it is. It comes with an anti-static soft brush for cleaning. You could also choose to frame it in a shadow box frame.
(click on image to view full image) VIEW A VIDEO OF HER, HERE
When I was a child I approached nature with wonder and amazement. Her symmetry, color, and fractals captivated my mind constantly. My earliest memories were playing in my grandmother’s garden, never wondering what compelled her to convert every inch of her back yard into growing plants, buzzing with pollinators. This experience opened up my mind to the beauty of photosynthesis, our basis for life.
This piece is meant to honor photosynthesis and express our symbiotic relationship. It is painted using handmade paints made out of pigment from found material like my grandmother’s crushed antique jewelry, various pigments from the earth, broken glass, and other material I have collected over the years. The glitter represents the child’s perspective and natural wonder for everything, while the broken jewelry and glass represents nature’s fragility.
I am part of the Photosynthesis Project, a long-term project by a group of professional artists working together in the theme of Photosynthesis, and what that means to us. She will be exhibited throughout the month of November at the Center for New Media, along with the other artists in the Photosynthesis Project. She is available for purchase. I am requiring 10% down to reserve her. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing this artwork. alexa@alexakarabin.com
She is painted on a fine-art birch panel that is 2’’ thick and 24’’x36’’ in size, and can be framed to your liking.
Now that my large originals are home, I am able to drop the price a bit! When they are in a gallery I have to share between 40%-60% with the gallery! I spent 3 months making this piece and several months before that conceiving and planning for it! It is made with a LOT of 24k gold and a variety of other materials. Read the story about the Deer, below!
I so believe in omens, whatever name you want to give them. For me, they usually involve animals. And sometimes they come at me in quite dramatic ways, unfortunately. This one happened when I was standing outside my studio in the spring taking a smoke break and enjoying the sun, when a gunshot came out of nowhere. I live in what I would call residential-country. I have an acre and 1/2 of land. There are houses all around and my kids play outside (they were at grandma’s at the time). A police officer then rolls up my driveway to inform me he had just shot and deer on my property. I was taken aback and still in shock. He caught me smoking pot, something that had just become legal in Michigan. So, let’s just put it this way—I didn’t ask questions. The officer left without saying more, and I was left with a body ( I assume the deer had been hit by a car first). I knew I was meant to watch over this deer. This piece was inspired by what I saw over the next few months. I collected fur when that was all that was left, and a few days later an old oak tree fell on where the body was. When I made this piece, I mostly thought about how humans interact with nature. How we impact it with our actions. And how the cycle still wants to happen, even though our impact created a ripple. How fragile nature is. How beautiful and perfect it is. How broken we are.
The deer is made out of the handmade watercolors that I make out of my grandmother’s antique jewelry. It has embedded crystals, moonstones, beads, glass, and a lot of 24k gold. The piece is 3 dimensional. A real cicada husk was embedded and gilded with 24k gold leaf, and the fur of the deer that inspired this piece was used in it, as well. The piece is sealed to protect the organic components. I include a non-static brush for occasional dusting (once or twice a year).
It is 30’’x30’’ on a 3 inch thick, cradled birch panel. I had a white, wood custom frame made for it. The frame is included in the price. The price also includes shipping within the United States. Please allow for a couple of weeks, because I will have to make a custom box for shipping.
She was exhibited for several months, and now she is home with me! When I exhibit in a gallery I have to share between 40%-60% with the gallery. Now that she is home with me, I was able to drop the price a bit! I spent 3 intense months on her and she is made with a LOT of 24k gold, gems, and other mixed-media. I have shipped prints of her all over the world, but there is nothing like the original. She sparkles, shines, and glows. She is an experience. Full price includes a frame of your choice, but on sale she comes without a frame.
Statement for the Nest:
First, there was the Deer. A painting that was inspired by an incident that involved a deer that was shot on my property, and the subsequent months that followed, watching the animal return to the earth. When only fur was left, I collected some, but left most of it. The day after I collected the fur, a giant oak tree fell on where the body once rested. Months later, in early spring, the pandemic had started and I spent more than a month inside. Scared. Finally, I forced myself to go outside and explore the woods. And that is when I found it. A bird had made a nest out of deer fur! The Deer’s fur. This piece was inspired by the feelings I had at that moment of discovery.
Using a variety of techniques, I create artworks that explore themes of natural history, historical occurrence, memory, and cycles. My materials are found and handmade—my most precious material is my grandmother’s antique jewelry that I crush and use to make handmade watercolors. This piece also includes rubies, emeralds, 24k gold, deer fur, geodes, and glass.
View the piece in action on youtube: https://youtu.be/1aG3WBkRUIk