gz-Body Painting or Going Away

No, not me. Ha, you're not getting rid of me that easily!

Someone else... and so there was a big kids' going away party yesterday afternoon at Tribeca Cinemas. I was hired to face paint at the party, and because I knew we'd have two hours and a lot of kids, I brought my friend Emilie with me.

The party was great, with balloons, a DJ, food, and drink... and of course, us. When we first got there, only a few girls chose to get painted.

So I did what I usually do to try and attract attention; I started to paint myself as a tiger. Well, I got the orange and white base done, and picked up a brush with black to get myself a nose, fangs, and start on my stripes... and of course, a line formed! We painted furiously for over two hours straight, and I never did get a chance to finish my own painting, so I spent the afternoon painting with an orange and white face. I actually forgot about it until I went to the bathroom to empty my water and looked in the mirror!

Oops.

I was happy, though. I think I got my puppy face down to about 90 seconds, since I did what felt like hundreds of them. And we had some creative kids there. This very pretty girl wanted to be a vampire, and was very happy with her face, even happier when she turned around and scared the heck out of two girls waiting behind her!

I also had a young mermaid swim away from my chair.

Recognize the very quick version of the shell I practiced for cheek art? Speaking of cheek art, some of the most fun paintings I did were of the cheek and arm art variety. The kids were so into the painting once we got going, that ones who'd already been face painted kept coming back and getting on line to get arms painted; I think had some had four or five separate paintings!

Well, my first new thing for the day... I got a request for a robot! Um... OK. Let's see what we can do with that.

And then... a lollipop!

And last, but not least, a flamingo!

Of course, those resulted in many repeated requests for robots, lollipops, and flamingos. Of course!

gz-Body Painting or What an experience!

Wow.

Friday night was opening night of the show I'm in, and everyone went out after, so I got home late. And then of course I was wide awake and couldn't sleep right away.

I got up on Saturday at around 9 a.m., leaving for Tribeca at 10, to get to the Film Fesival.

I found my place in Washington Market Park, and set up while Eric went to find parking - it took him an hour! Tha'ts how crazy and huge the fetival was. It makes sense on such a gorgeous day. The high was 88, and it was just partly cloudy. Perfect for this sort of thing, really, and I was in an area shaded by trees, so it was even more attractive.

Well, on the first trip, people saw me put stuff by the table with the "face painting" sign, and started to line up. As usual, people started getting on line for painting while I was still setting up. I set up fast, and got going... and going... and going.

I painted nonstop for 5 hours, barely taking a break for a swig of SmartWater.

The kids were freakin' awesome, EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Not exaggerating. Polite, sweet, fun. Laughed at my bad jokes, and I did a zillion butterflies but most let me match colors to their outfits! And most of the parents and guardians were also freakin' awesome. Seriously, I was thanked for doing the painting, thanked for making the kids happy, repeatedly told what a great artist I was, and thanked some more. They thanked me for even just being a face painter!

It feels so grear to be appreciated, it really does. This is the kind of event that makes the heat, the lugging and carrying, the practice, the investment, the shore shoulders and backs - all of it - worthwhile.

I heard that people were waiting on line for me for TWO HOURS and were STILL nice to me. I'm pretty sure that says something about their character.

People were so disappointed when I had to leave at 4; next year I will definitely not audition for the May show at the theater so I can spend the whole day painting. It's worth it.

While there, though, I got to do my second ever panda! And third, but I didn't get a photo of that one.

I loved this brother and sister too, a kitty that originally wanted to be a bird, and a robot! My robot requests are very infrequent, but a challenge is always welcome.

I also got to design my first mouse! This girl was such a cutie, and luckily, we got video and a photo of the final result.

That night, I was back on stage for a great show, as was I on Sunday afternoon!

After that, I came home to an email from the project manager of the Festival, letting me know that the "official" estimate was that they had over 300,000 attendees and thanking me for "helping to make it such a very special day for everyone who attended."

She commented that she'd wanted to say hi as she passed a few times, but didn’t want to interrupt me "while [I was] busy transforming faces into artistic beauty," that everyone seemed so pleased with my work, and that it was a pleasure to have me with them. It was definitely mutual!

gz-Body Painting or Go, Rangers!

OK, I'm from NJ, I know. And I'm really a Devils fan. But I married a Rangers fan, and since we met, he'd been talking about me painting a Rangers jersey on his all-white cat, Neptune. Neptune, in addition to being all white, is a lump. He's a sweetheart, snuggly, and likes to lie around. You can mush him to bits and he doesn't care.

So we figured it'd work fine.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell... we found out that Neptune is a little squirmy when being painted for any length of time. I should've known; he will only take licking/cleaning from his sister Catimus for so long before walking away, and I imagine this felt similar. Don't worry, I used all Snazaroo, it's perfectly safe. Child toy safety rated, even. And no animals - not even Neptune - were harmed in the painting of this cat or taking of the photos.

Almost none. My dog, Meg's, feelings were hurt, but she gets like that any time I pay too much attention to one of the cats. But that's it, I promise. And even that was fixed; I painted her head with a NJ Devils logo (not my best work, I admit), and she just lay there the whole time, happy for the attention.

Those sharp edges are just not easy on fur!

Throw a Party!

An Alice in Wonderland party!  Now, you can tell from my prior posts that I've got Alice on the brain.  But there's a new development.  Of course I can paint your face (or the faces of your kids and their friends) as the inhabitants of Wonderland - it's great to go to the movie painted and get some attention!  See this post.

But now, I can also tattoo you with glitter or ink in Wonderland-themed designs!  I can assure you, I'm the first person in NJ to get these terrific temporary tattoo stencils.  They were custom-made by a wonderful stencil maker in North Carolina, and aren't available anywhere else!

I've got the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter's hat (hey, that rhymes!), Alice herself, one of the cards, the White Rabbit, and of course the Caterpillar.

Contact me ASAP to check my availability for your next part or excursion to the movie theater!

And while I won't be here in NJ for St. Paddy's, there's no reason why you shouldn't throw a pre-or-post-Paddy's party!  I'll be in New Orleans from March 16-23, at a face and body painting seminar and event.  There will be lots of photos from that, I assure you!

But you won't want to miss out on having me at your event anyway, since I've also got brand-new St. Paddy's stencils, also from North Carolina, and also unavailable elsewhere.  You'll be the coolest kid on your block when sporting these designs!

I've done two glitter tattoos on myself to show you how great they are.  I had to do a Cheshire Cat, since he's my absolute favorite in Wonderland.  I went with the Disney colors of pink & purple, though I could make him any colors I choose...

And in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I've got my lucky horseshoe and four-leaf clover all ready to go!  I used two shades of green and some gold on this one.

Much like face painting, glitter tattoos are a lot easier to do on someone else than myself!  Anyway, hope you like these.  Let me know if you want some too!

So About That Photography I Mentioned

Yesterday, I went with friends to the Orchid Show at the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. I brought both of my cameras - the digital one Eric got me last year for Chanukah, and my very old Fujica that takes 35mm print film and is 100% manual.

I don't have my prints back yet, I actually have not yet dropped off the film for developing, but I've got the digital photos, of course, so here are a few.