Okay, so I learned how to do a bunch of neat techniques....now I can't stop thinking about face painting and body art. I think about it all day, I dream about it at night. I keep thinking of body art patterns I could do, or new ideas that I've never done (like using lace fabric as a stencil for sponging delicate patterns on women, or mesh fabric for making scales on monsters). I find myself studying body art from world-renowned artists so I can try to figure out how they did what they did. I have several magazines of body art that I can't put down....I'm fascinated by it.
I'm so annoyed with my Pharmacology class so I sketch body art ideas while I listen to the lectures. I've been asking a bunch of friends to be models for me to practice on. I'm so excited; one of my dearest friends is 9 months pregnant and she's letting me paint her belly this week! I'm really excited about that...there's a couple designs I've been thinking of for her. I'll post pictures on here when the painting is done this weekend.
I'm working on getting an official face painting website up and running...we'll see how long that takes. My classes are so busy that I barely have time to paint, let alone make a website. I am so frustrated with inefficient, non-user-friendly web design interfaces. Thank heaven for a software engineer husband who can read the html code for me and rewrite the necessary parts so the page will do what I want it to! Hopefully the page will be up before Christmas. The biggest problem is that I need to take more pictures of my work so the galleries will be full. We'll work on that....any one want to be painted? :)
I'm so eager to create new body art that everything else is a bigger hassle than normal. I don't want to clean, fold laundry (although I DID do it, I just wished I weren't doing it), cook, etc. I just want to lock myself in my art nook with a model so I can play with paint. -Erg.- The intensity of this desire surprises me, but I hope to relish it while it lasts. I get creative 'highs' where I'm driven to make art...sometimes compelling me to work on a canvas painting until far after midnight, and I feel a little crazy as I work, like I simply can't stop until it's done. That's the way I feel now.
It's SO tempting to ignore the 5-page paper I have to write before Friday (about the pandemic of AIDS in America...not exciting nor uplifting), the 100 drugs to memorize for Pharmacology before next week, the science fair project I promised to help Sarah do before Thanksgiving, the birthday party preparations for Sarah's fairy party this weekend, etc, etc. -sigh- It's so hard to wait for the right season in life where I can just create without obligations.
Until then, I'm carrying a little sketchbook with me everywhere so I can jot down my ideas. I had become very excited at the prospect of attending the North American Face Painting Convention in Las Vegas this spring...I wanted to compete in the body painting show. After studying some of the top artists and their work, I think that I can paint better than one or two of them (not most of them-most of them are WAY out of my league, I can only compare with just a few). Some of these artists are paid by makeup companies to promote their product by teaching classes or entering competitions and using only that particular brand of paint. They also get all their supplies for free (HUGE bonus! The makeup is so expensive!). I toyed with the idea of advertising myself to some of the companies in the near future, after I've honed my skills in a few areas.
I decided (a bit reluctantly) that this is not the season of life for that. On the slim chance that I did get 'discovered' by body art magazines or sponsered by a makeup supplier, they'd just demand that I travel more to teach classes, or attend conventions to boost their product, or churn out body paintings that I don't have time to do. I concluded that it would sacrifice my young family for the sake of publicity or notoriety. I'm already vain enough for two people....I certainly don't need more of that. I've decided to quietly work on my art and stay low from the international face painting scene until my kids are teenagers. At least that's my plan for now.
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