Masquerade time!

I’m looking forward to Rory Coyne’s opening, “Marked by Myth” on Friday. I had the privilege of seeing one of Rory’s oil paintings evolve layer by layer as I took his fiancee’s drawing class, and am excited to see ‘the Dragon man’ (my name) in completed form.

Reading Rory’s announcement (click for the full scoop) was a vocabulary lesson for me. Therianthropic means “combining the form of an animal with that of a man,” which is a perfect descriptor of the paintings Rory creates.

I don’t know anything about the “contemporary allegorical realist movement” but I look forward to learning more about that during the opening (and will report back). To me it suffices that he is very talented and his work is creative and cool (and the Dutch connection is a plus).

Rory’s event invitation promises a masquerade, so of course I jumped on the opportunity to make my very own mask. I knew butterflies would be a perfect template, so I googled ‘butterfly mask’ and came upon this lovely link with three templates to choose from.

I turned on the Phantom of the Opera to get in the mood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwoLNtUuCVk

My first attempt felt blah.

So I used a gift card at Michaels to go shopping and pick out more sparkle.

I like the shimmer of my papers and glitter felt.

Then I cut out the mask outlines, and had some fun ‘sizing’ them. You do need to make sure the standard templates fit your face.

Cutting out eyes evenly was a challenge, and I had to make sure I could see out of them.

I had picked out glittery butterflies from Jolee’s Boutique to embellish the mask with, and put the three layers together.

Since I wear glasses, I used a wire stem and embellished it with a glitter flower as the mask-holder. The wire stem and flower stem were combined with floral tape, and then I hot-glued the stem to the mask.

The Marked by Myth opening is from 6 to 10 p.m. at FM*GALLERY, located at 310 N. Peoria, Chicago, IL 60607 (near blue line Grand stop or green/pink line Morgan stop). Valet parking is available opening night. The exhibit continues through Friday October 5.

Ten percent of the exhibition earnings will benefit the Marwen Organization, to give back to the Chicago art community. If you can’t make it to the show, don’t despair. Rory also has a book available on Blurb, so you can peruse his paintings in your home.

I’ll show you the full look after the party.