Where'd She Go? (art-life update)

Hi!
Oh man, it has been a while since I have blogged and I have missed it a lot. I hope to blog more regularly in the future. For me, it is a great way to keep focused and to process life.

Let's play a little catch-up.  :)

Solo Art Show 2013
So, the last time I shared was in August before I finished work at the cake shop. My last day there was November 8, 3013 and then I had my very first solo art show that weekend at Bright Red Studios in Madison, WI. The show was a huge success! I sold many prints of my work, had a ton of amazing people come to see my art, got to show off a little body art on some beautiful friends, thank you Erin (the raven) and Lindy (Sparrows) - hair done by hair-extraordinaire Kristin Lillig, and got to explain a lot of my work by placing little meaning cards under each title card. Thank you to all of you that supported me! It made me so happy and enforced the fact that though my new path is unpredictable, this is what I am supposed to be doing.

A few shots from the solo art show, aptly titled 'New Chapter':

RAWARDS 2103

I had the honor of being chosen as one of three Semi-Finalists for RAW Madison's Artist of the Year! I won this title in 2012 and talented fellow artist, Miranda Morrissey, won it for 2013.
To promote the awards show, a few other RAW artists and I were invited to talk on a local morning show. I brought along the lovely Brittany as a model for some of my body art. (Thank you for getting up at 3am with me so we could get ready!)

During the awards show, I displayed some of my visual art along with my body art as I painted four different models as attendees watched. My special trick for the night was that I used UV body paint that glowed in blacklight. Thank you to my models: Amanda, Erin, Katie, and Lindy!

Project Famous
It's funny what starting a blog can become. I ended up selling one of the first pieces I blogged about AND I caught the eye of an online local arts magazine, Project Famous, run by the wonderful Kelly Lajter and Joey Broyles. After writing a piece about an art show that I attended, they asked if I would join their team as Arts Editor. I told them that I would join the team once I got past the craziness of my solo art show. Since then, I have been writing for the magazine every month, working with some talented writers and artists, and connecting with the Madison art scene more than I had ever hoped!
Check out the magazine and download issues: www.projectfamous.com

Finding My New Schedule
After all the hubbub of finishing my last weeks of work, the solo art show, the awards show, some various face painting and caricature gigs, dealing with a progressively worsening illness (see next blog), and the holidays, it was suddenly the new year and time to create some kind of guidelines for my newly found state of self-employment. This was not easy and I am still working on it but I have started to find a rhythm.

After breakfast, I find that mornings are best spent on the computer, cats on lap, with a cup of tea. My body takes a while to wake up and my creativity is still snoozing. This morning time is spent answering emails, updating my website and social media sites, editing photos, writing, making to-do lists, researching for projects, etc. Sometimes my computer time switches to early afternoon if a workout is scheduled in the morning and that seems to work well.

By late afternoon/early evening I am itching to create! This is when I hop down to my art cave where I usually have multiple projects in progress. When I am on a roll, sometimes Mark has to remind me when it is time for dinner or time for bed. I can get caught up when it comes to making art.

This is the ideal schedule for my week days. Weekends are mainly filled with art shows, gigs plus social events, church, and some quality time with my husband. This whole setup is peppered with day to day responsibilities, too - meetings, groceries, cleaning, cooking, pet care, etc. Days rarely turn out as expected but I am learning to be kinder to myself, taking each day as it happens and enjoying the small successes.

Here is some of the art I have made recently (late 2013, early 2014):

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Yay art! Hi, are you still with me? This is turning out to be a pretty long post, further proving the point that I have to blog more often! Anyhow, thank you for sticking with it if you have gotten this far. Just a little more to go...
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Zombillies - The Greater Midwest Body Art Convention and Competition 2014The ladies of Glitter to Gore outdid themselves! They worked really hard to bring some fantastic body art and sfx instructors to Madison and I looooved the classes! If you are curious about the classes I took, I wrote a whole article that will be in the May issue of Project Famous.

The competition was based on the Zombillies theme, a mix of Rockabilly culture plus zombie style. I created a character named Hot-Rod Rita, a freshly zombified hot-rod pinup model. Before the competition, I sketched, made a headpiece, painted flames on the fake nails, re-worked a bustle (with the help of my mom's seamstress skills), met with my friend/model, Amy-Jo, and practiced wound work and paint techniques. I also worked in some of the new knowledge from the convention classes.

The competition was 6 hours long and the time passed very quickly! Amy-Jo was, as always, an excellent model; she kept still when I was doing detail work, took direction easily, and was just all around fun to work with because of her positive/silly attitude. I ended up placing third for body painting!

What's next?
After doing so much with body art during March, the next few months are packed with visual art shows! I was just in a gallery show at Yellow Rose Gallery, I have will be showing art in two places for Madison's Gallery Night in May, I am making art for the new gallery in Mt. Horeb, Opera House Gallery, I am an artist for the Madison Art Hunt in June, and then I will be the featured artist at Art and Soul Tattoo in New Glarus in August. Also, scheduled are face painting gigs, caricature gigs, and some quality time with my friends and family. Busy times! Adding these events to my website is going on my to-do list now!

This will be my first summer in eleven years that is not pre-structured by the wedding and graduation season. Strange but true. I miss making cakes and my friends from the cake shop (hi guys, I love you!), but I am excited to experience what is ahead.

Thank you so much for reading!

A Big Decision

This painting is called Exposed Profile (2012, spraypaint and oils) and it effectively describes how I am feeling at the moment. It shows someone facing one way, their mind directing them another, and their roots growing in yet another direction. I have so many things that I would love to do, so many paths to follow, and not enough time in which to do everything successfully. That torn feeling has led me to make a big decision about my life.

As some of you know, I recently made a huge choice that will result in a big change in the way I have lived for the past 10.5 years. I gave my notice to Craig's Cake Shop that I would like to be taken off the schedule once the busy season ends (late October, early November). I won't be totally disconnecting from the shop and will go in to help once in a while.

The shop has been part of my life for a long time; I have been there for over a third of my life! The people I have worked with have been like family and I am proud of the product we make and love making people smile with all the cool cakes I get to decorate. The decision was not at all easy and I know I will miss being a part of the everyday activities of the cake shop and the lovely people.

I made this choice for a couple reasons. The first and biggest reason is that my personal business (art, illustration, face and body painting) has been growing a lot and to take it to the next level, I need to give my full attention. It has been draining and a bit stressful to juggle jobs, especially when the busy time for both is in the summer, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays. Those days are also when my husband, Mark, would love to hang out, go camping, travel, see a movie, etc. As long as he has known me, our free times have not coincided very well. After four years of dating and another four years of marriage, it is time to spend more time together! Another reason is the fact that squeezing a pastry bag for as long as I have can start causing repetitive motion injuries. My fingertips have been going numb after work and then have continued to go numb as I am painting at home or during a face painting job.

Though it is a huge change and I am a little anxious, I am also very excited about the future of all my pursuits. It is really a dream come true to be able to make art the center of what I do for a career. I can only hope that I will be successful and be able to make a living from the things I do and what I create. This choice was made possible by my wonderful and supportive husband who works very hard and just wants to see me smile. Thank you, Mark; I love you!

There is a lot more to say but the busy life beckons. I plan to write more about my plans for my business and I intend to write a blog post devoted to how I started at the cake shop and my experiences there.

I am about a week away from a RAW show on Thursday, August 15th, featuring my visual art and I have been busy making new pieces for that. I'm so excited to share my work! If you are interested, I would love to see you there! Please make sure to purchase paperless tickets online and in my name before the show. You can purchase tickets here: www.rawartists.org/madison/enmasse or view my Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/132514163624952/

Thanks for reading!

Beginnings : How I Got Into Face and Body Painting

It all started at Craig's Cake Shop (which will be another story for another time) in 2006. I had been working there for a few years and was learning to decorate cakes under the wing of a kind, bubbly, talented woman named Kim. Other than working at the cake shop, Kim had a home daycare and did face painting and caricatures. She encouraged me to try both caricatures and face painting. Kim told me to get a basic palette and to go home and experiment.

The night I bought my first face paint palette, I was covered head to toe in practice paintings! It was a good thing I lived alone at the time! It was a different medium, more slick than acrylic but it did not layer like acrylic because of the properties of water activated paint. I pulled from my knowledge of what face painting looked like in my experiences (hearts, flowers, smiley faces) and from my own artistic background. I definitely started out trying to paint specific objects like they would be stickers on the skin. It took me a while to learn how to expand on the designs and fit them to the shape of the face or body.

Starting with cheek and arm art:

 

Soon after I messed around with the paints, Kim told me about her friend, Tami, who might be looking for people to do caricature and face painting gigs for her. Tami is an amazing woman who has a past in clown school, can twist balloons, paint faces, and more! She started her own business called Funny Faces Family Entertainment and does a fabulous job! I met Tami for the first time when shadowing Kim on a caricature gig. She was a warm and welcoming woman and greeted me with a smile, encouraging me to dive right in and draw caricatures right next to Kim! After that, Tami would call me once in a while to do a gig for her in between my work at the cake shop and my graphic design work.

My mom, Lucy, was probably the lynchpin to me getting further into face painting. She sees opportunity and possibility and trusts in my talents and my ability to learn quickly. My mom is the one that encouraged me to make little business cards with examples of my work. She told her friends about me and word slowly spread that I was available for these fun services! Proud mommy! More birthday parties, work picnics, and Halloween makeups meant more experience for me and allowed me to expand on how I could use the paint. I went from simple cheek and arm art to fuller designs.

2008:

 2010:

I continued face painting for various events and in 2012 got another push forward. I read about RAW: Natural Born Artists in Craig's List and then saw that a friend was doing a show. I got in contact with the lead of the Madison RAW at the time, Molly Waseka, and she liked my artwork and got me in to do a show the following month. Molly passed the torch to the current leader of RAW Madison, Samiera! I mentioned to Samiera that if she needed anyone to do fun eye or face designs on models for a runway show, she should let me know because I would love to help. Samiera had bigger ideas! She mentioned body painting! Before then, it had just been an idea bouncing around my head for a future endeavor, but one in which I had very little prior experience, so one that I was previously reticent to try.  However, I put on a brave face and agreed to body paint for the show!

The show was a challenge but it pushed me creatively and socially! I needed to work quickly so I bought an airbrush and some airbrush body paint. Samiera had the concept of spelling out "I AM RAW" across the stomachs of six models and for the rest, I should just be creative. I came up with concepts for each of the models provided by RAW and even worked with some of them to include ideas they liked. The models were so kind and excited (thank you!) and I formed friendships while working with them. While the work was rushed (lots of models in one afternoon), it still had impact and I was (and still am) happy with how it all turned out, especially given how new I was with body painting using an airbrush!

RAW Solstice show 2012, photo by Angela Voell of Green Paint Photography

Models (left to right): Laura Venechuk, Erin Thomson, Sarah Wirth, Tess Wirth, Brittany Baye, Emma Dehlinger

Propelled by this show and my new interest in body painting as an art form, I started to look into it more. I did research, watched videos, joined Facebook groups, got new kinds of body paint, found my favorite kind of brushes, etc. Through this process, I met Dawn and Michelle of Glitter to Gore. Dawn and Michelle started a body art and special effects company together and are very skilled and passionate with lots of experience!

Through Glitter to Gore, I was connected to classes that they hosted where they brought in famous and super talented (and funny!) face and body painters like Pashur and Jay Bautista. I learned a lot in these classes and improved my speed, line quality, and design ideas. Glitter to Gore also brought me into body painting competitions like 2012's Greater Midwest Body Paint Competition, 'My Dark Valentine'. I painted my good friend Amy-Jo, placed second, and won crowd favorite!

2012 My Dark Valentine - 'Bitter Ballerina': 

Photos by Peter F. Castro

During this time, I also experimented by mixing my artistic skills with body art and had some of my friends sit still for an hour or two while I painted their backs. I also painted friends and models for art shows.

Models:

[first row] Erin Thomson, Stef

[second row] Anonymous, Tory, Becky

Models: 

[first row] Ariel, Stef, Yenney

[second row] Amy-Jo Hagen, Aja Heuss

[third row] Meggen Heuss, Brittany Baye

[fourth row] Joey Broyles, Erin Thomson

Photos 4-7 by BMB Graphics

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So, that brings us to right now. I get asked a lot how I got into face and body painting as it is not a "normal" career choice. As you can tell, it was brought about rather organically. My creative personality helped but so did the influence of all the wonderful and encouraging people I have met over the years. This goes to show how important it is to value and cherish connections and friendships. It proves that a kind and encouraging word can go a long way and that we should nurture the creativity in each other. I am so grateful for all the people I have met and with whom I've interacted along the way! Thank you for being a big part of why I do what I do! I am looking forward to continuing this creative path and am excited to see what the future brings with my face and body art!

Thanks so much for reading!