Fun photo-self portrait of suitcase artist and her friend

The suitcase artist got her own bill board!

Yesterday while on facebook I uploaded a new , well it was an old pic of me because I was considering changing my profile pic. I choose one that was black and white of me while I was n Mexico, I always thought it had a vintage feel, like I was the typical 50s tourist, My friend and artist Victoria Pandora quickly but on my wall this art worked photo version of it. Then a few days later she created the image that you see on top, I have made it my desktop background. I have dreams that the realities created by Victoria Pandora are alternative and attainable .

Catherine Reinke Suitcase artist photo by Victoria Pandora

Here is am image that her husband made for her, she is elegant magical and saves the world each and every day . I love her . We have been friends for years, in fact we lived together as co-families while in Sedona Arizona during some very trying times for myself . It was fact that brought us together. I had signed up for a REIKI class, I wanted to get my mastership in one of the most notable alternative health centers in the USA, we were looking for affordable room and board and came across Victoria's room for rent. Our children , her two girls and mine , hit it off.

These are two other works she made for me, my husband and I and my first born daughter Cassy when she was 6

A year and half later we moved with our Winnebago from Wisconsin and parked in her driveway and lived there for about a year before finding our own place.  Victoria, then as now, is an artist, in fact it is she whom I first learned the fine art of decoupage from. I tried my hand at it while there, and found myself clumsy at best. She created beautiful breathtaking furniture, musical instruments and stained glass. Victoria s work can be found at her newly opened etsy store here

The Goddess Victoria Pandora

SElf portrait-suitcase

Self portrait
of
C a t h e r i n e R e i n k e
suitcase artist

It is customary for most artist to indulge in the traditional artists portrait , as I have on canvas I thought it was time to venue out into my favorite medium-the suitcase. As I recently begun to explore new depths of the the suitcase, quite literally, I chose this very run down,forgotten, used up, rusted and falling apart case. Which at one time had strength and character and was enviable.



This is textured white rather thick wall paper I thought it would be lovely to apply multi layers of paint on it, I was right I love the way it turned out.
There it is after I removed all the lining and washed it down. Sorry the image turned out blurry but you get the idea. The top is cardboard and my husband cut the center out for me with a jig saw.

The case fell apart and had to be completely reglued. It was filled with mold and I washed it down with beach water.



After all the water based varnish I needed to quickly dry it as the top of suitcase is simply cardboard.


I began doing recycled art because of the collection of the way I felt, thrown away , unappreciated, not shiny and new, not what society wanted. I have continually tried to remake myself from the hurt and trauma, betrayal and debilitating pain that I have endured in my life, to hide the pain under neath color , pattern and pretties. Just Like I do with my suitcases.
I took acid free art papers that had an old fashioned feel and simply randomly tore them and placed them on the case so much of the natural stressed wood could be exposed.
The gold paint gave this an elegant yet worn look. Nothing like gold, I love to work with it.

THE MEANING BEHIND THE CREATION

I made this mask a few years ago, it shows four eyes, indicating that my eyes are my predominate feature, I have been accused of being influenced to much by life because I love "eye Candy", it was a criticism.

Maybe so , I see and observe everything around me, textures, details, I find beauty in so much. I also added a sheer strip of lace over the mouth as I feel most of the time that I really can not express what I am really thinking. My radical or deeply spiritual views , which can boarder on unorthodox, thoughts on the origin of life, philosophy, vies on art and such are better left to the realm of my own mind and when I have attempted to share them I have been met at best which ridicule. I later added the tiny square mirror to the third eye, showing how inner thoughts and vision are reflected off the person who you are looking at. So in essence I have 5 eyes and no mouth!

Putting the hand in front of my mouth is an additional reinforcement of how i feel about others telling me hush up, it is a finger to the mouth saying shhh! or shut up or don't say that!



I dressed the mask up with big earrings and ruffle collar showing my love for clothing, she is festivel yet sad, a single tear can be seen dropping from her eye.
For the back I chose this solitary black and white image of the traditional style that represents the artist. The archetype symbol if you will . The artists black beret.