The Sleeping Beauty

One of my favorite pieces, The Sleeping Beauty, was chosen to be exhibited at the Gothic exhibit at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Orange County, California from February 2 through March 24. This is the first time that my piece has been selected to be a part of a juried show and I was so very excited about the opportunity. 

The only issue was that the "print" existed soley as a digital illustration. I had originally created the piece in 2007 as an illustration and poem. I reworked it so that the poem and the image were integrated, adding a texture I shot in my driveway to tie everything together. I was happy that I finally was able to take the 2 parts and make them one complete image, which had been bothering me since I first created the image.

Unfortunately, the deadline for shipping was a week away and it needed to make it from Ohio to California in that time. I received the notice in the evening, too late to start work on finding local framing for it. So the next day, I tore out of work early to search my local stores for the frame that would best complement my artwork. 

I was in luck: Michael's had the perfect Victorian style frame that fit the theme of my piece and the exhibit and it was 50% off! I then purchased the cheapest poster frame I could find that fit the frame to protect the print. I hurried home and set my Epson r1800 to print on Epson's Radiant White archival inkjet paper while I assembled the pieces to make the frame.

Framing went pretty well (thankfully), and the next day, I headed to the UPS Store to have them pack and ship the piece. They couldn't guarantee a delivery time, but I took my chances since I couldn't afford to ship it overnight.

Luckily, The Sleeping Beauty arrived safely and on time and was shown in a high traffic area of Los Angeles. While I am bummed I couldn't make it out to the artists' reception, it was very cool to have my piece included in the exhibit with other great art!

I've now been inspired to complete the other two pieces in the series: Snow White and Cinderhella.

The text of the poem reads:

The Sleeping Beauty
Darkness fell upon the sleeping beauty.
Her pale face glowed by the moon's light.
Peaceful as she lay, her secret hidden.
Until the night a charming rider appeared,
Drawn to her side.
He pressed his lips to hers only to discover
She had taken away his last breath.