I had a lovely email yesterday from the Argentine artist Francine Oeyen about her fascinating art project, called "Be My Walking Gallery." Francine creates lovely miniature hand-painted canvases that she then turns into rings, earrings, pins and hair barrettes. Made of wood, cloth and silver, each item is a unique piece of wearable art. But Francine's concept goes even further — ideally she'd like to see her paintings travel around the world, as (she writes) "... a part of myself that detaches and walks around when other people become my walking gallery." To this end she encourages buyers of her work to email her a photograph of themselves wearing it as part of her project. You can find out more about the Walking Gallery project and see where it's been so far on Francine's blog, and you can also be a part of it by purchasing one of her wearable art pieces on her Etsy shop, too.
Clockwise from top left: a pin in (I think) Argentina; Cecilia wears a pair of earrings in Guatemala; Luli wears a ring in Cuba; Florencia wears a hair barrette in Costa Rica.