 |
The
Green Pages
THE OFFICIAL MARK GREENAWALT NEWSLETTER |
|
| VOL 6 ISSUE 2 | FUTURE-CLASS
X PUBLISHING
(www.futureclassx.com) |
February 2003 |
It was a bodypainting unlike any I had done before. The model was
perfectly still throughout the 2 day process and never even hinted at being
cold, tired, or hungry. The paints that I used were not limited to the
non-toxic bodypaints that I normally work with and for the first time I was able
to sell the original bodyart. This time, although the shape of the canvas
was familiar, it was not alive and not nearly as soft. The subject was a
lifecast sculpture: a plaster replica of a woman's body made by a
specialized molding technique by the renown lifecaster Byur Gullwing of
Scottsdale.
Who was the model for this piece? Only she and Gullwing know and they aren't telling. Gullwing does share other samples of his work on his official website at www.lifecastaz.com and also tells a little bit about himself. I first became familiar with his work in the year 2000 when he showcased one of his lifecasts at the Alwun House Exotic Art Show. It wasn't until several months ago, though, that we finally hooked up and concocted a plan to combine our artforms into one common collaboration. And thus was born the first of (hopefully) many to come bodypainted lifecasts.
This piece incorporates several ancient Egyptian themes and symbols and I have named her/it "Isis". Nearly all of the paints used on this project are metallic. Although the skin tone area may look unpainted, this is actually a copper metallic spray paint that was used over the pure white plaster that I started with. This is a one-of-a-kind, hand-painted, true-to-life sculpture and it is currently on display at the 20th Anniversary Exotic Art Show at the Alwun House in the downtown Phoenix art district through March 14th, 2003. Oh, and did I mention, it's for sale! Click on the image above to see the larger image.
It all started with a concept. I wanted to create a queen of spades
playing card bodypainting with a twist. The upside down queen was to look
just like the playing card, but the top queen would stretch outside of the
limits of the card and "become" the model. At the time, I only
had two completed bodypaintings to my name (the spider and pinacle peak) and
both of them were only back paintings. When I approached my friend Kay
about modeling for my third bodypainting, she was very anxious about taking part
in the project. Her first surprise was when I told her that although my
first two paintings were on the model's backs, hers was to be painted on the
front. Her second surprise was when I explained that the painting would
extend "everywhere" on her body. Slightly shocked, but yet
intrigued, she accepted the mission.
The above image from the queen of spades session was incorporated into the printed invitations to the 2001 Exotic Art Show at the Alwun House. The image was modified in photoshop to be the queen of hearts. For the art show, I asked Kay if she would be interested in being painted with the playing card again, only this time it would be the queen of hearts and she would be put on display for the thousands of visitors to the art show. Once again she rose to the occasion. This time the crown changed and the latex portion of the painting switched from black to red.
A year later, when the 2002 Exotic Art Show rolled around, we extended the mission with the queen of diamonds bodypainting. By now, Kay and I had the process down pat, but the session still took about 5 hours to complete. This time, for added flavor, the card was decorated with diamond body jewelry that was glued on and we omitted the latex suit to show off a little more skin (and to give her bathroom privileges that the past two paintings didn't afford).
Now this month, the annual Exotic Art Show rolled in again and the series was completed with Kay donning the queen of clubs. Yet another crown was employed this year and the color scheme was embellished with gold liquid latex. Even the experience from the previous three sessions was not enough to speed up the process and so 5 hours after starting, the series was complete.
Jill was one of the first models that I hoped to work with when I moved back to
Phoenix in 2000. I didn't meet her, however, till last year while I was
doing the flower bodypainting on Alison at Jim Goodwin's studio. The next
time I saw her was at the AZ Shootout where she was playing photographer instead
of model. As we sat and chatted, we plotted a plan to do a marijuana leaf
bodypainting and submit it to High Times magazine. At this year's Alwun
House Exotic Art Show, we took the opportunity to do a rough draft of the
idea. You can see more of Jill (and samples of her photography) on her
website at www.jillv.net .
Other paintings from the night included the live version of the Isis lifecast on
Tracy Heath, the Phoenix Firebird on Janet Morrison-Eisner, the colorful peacock
on Chantel West, and the ace of spades painted on Heidi Swartz gave us black
jack! Janet and Chantel had seen me doing the bodypainting sessions the
previous year and contacted the Alwun House to see if they could be my canvases
for this year's event. Tracy was a friend of Kay's who expressed interest
in being painted at the show and I thought she made a great Isis. Heidi is
a good friend and she was painted with the Exotic 2002 logo at last year's
event. I think everybody had a good time and I'm now looking forward to
next year's Exotic Art show.
E-ya later,
Mark Greenawalt
mark@futureclassx.com
copyright 2003, Mark Greenawalt
THIS PAGE WAS LAST UPDATED ON 2/28/2003