Natasha Von Rosenschilde is a multimedia artist, sculptor and astrologer who writes stories about the occult and supernatural. Her work has appeared in magazines such as Time and Scientific American, billboards, films, books, and as the subject of a documentary on HBO. Educated at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, Ontario College of Art and York University in Toronto. She is currently completing a fantasy and speculative fiction series and creating sculptures that can sing. She resides in Toronto, Canada.

 

Artist Statement

 

I am an artist...

 

My canvases are the bodies of beautiful men and women.

 

Using light and colour, the power of symbol, and meticulous craftsmanship, I glorify the human body.

 

Through direct visual language, archetype and myth, I try to engage and open a provocative inner dialogue; a roadmap for exploring the inner landscape that lies deep within, beyond external perception .

I paint, sculpt and capture images photographically and digitally. My models offer up their bodies and their flesh to me with complete trust, allowing me to paint or tattoo my dreams, visions and fantasies upon their naked skin. As I work magical calligraphy starts to reveal itself, like automatic writing… A soul tattoo painted in ephemeral colour unfolds after hours of painstaking work, covering the sitter’s nakedness with a rainbow hued cloak . A powerful metamorphosis occurs as the body is slowly covered by a translucent spirit armor or magical cloak of protection, as in a fairy story.

 

I become a shaman and work as if in a trance. After holding still, posing for long hours the sitters see their transformed reflections. Self consciousness lifts and disappears. Empowered, they now move with an incredulous reverence and newborn freedom. There is a sacredness about this process, and it is felt by all who experience the completed work – the viewer, and the viewed . The power of this magical tattoo is tangible, felt by both seer and seen, the painter and the painted.

 

Awed by the beauty and majesty of the body in this moment of revelation, spirit shining through the translucent covering I have emblazoned on skin, I become deeply inspired to enter the next level of my image making process. This moment of awe is what I have prepared and worked for…the gratification of my artistic process.

 

The joy of my subjects in their new skin is contagious. Liberated, having morphed from one dimension to another, my subjects open to my eyes and lens.

I now photograph, immersed in the magic we have created, sometimes having already worked for 7 hours to the point of exhaustion…. Both of us there – artist and model, having gone for the deep burn, pursuing the high of our vision; surfing the wave of ephemeral free flow expression.

 

The synergy alive between us is now complete, caught and frozen by my lens … The portrait of a soul, in this shamanic journey we have embraced, my artist’s spirit dance.

-

 

Natasha von Rosenschilde

​