Face Painting Gallery: Faces at Play 2012 — Summit Wellness Fair

Hiking — an iconic design by Britt

This was our third year of painting faces at the Summit Medical Group Sports and Healthy Living Festival. With two years under our belt, we were able to fully implement “Transformations 3.0 — a radically artistic approach to bringing event themes to life.” The goal of the event is to get kids active to stay healthy and in support of that we eschewed all the normal animal faces, zombies and princesses to turn each person into a Face at Play. We would ask people what sports or games they played and invent a way to paint that onto their face. It’s a wonderful event attracting more people each year, produced by an award winning event company: Faith West Events.

Pushing ourselves forward into new directions keeps this an adventure and generates the excitement we share with the people we transform, to make the face painting an experience to remember. And it is really fun to paint like this, trying new things and sharing the adventure. The full gallery is below, but first a few notable examples: Continue reading

“not sure what it is about you and your artists…”

We painted yesterday at  the Summit Medical Group Live Well Sports & Health Festival, and received this note and foto afterwards:
“Just a short note of thanks.  Got a chance to see you and your crew at work today at the Wellness Fair.   I am sure that most of the communication you have is with parents…  but all I was looking at was the faces of the kids as they walked away.  Every single one of them had a shine, a glimmer…  not sure what it is about you and your artists…  but it highlights a moment in those children’s lives.  A short moment maybe, but more importantly…  a couple of grownups saw it…  and for a few seconds were reminded of better times and childhood.”
Such a thoughtful, encouraging note.  As we have worked through the years to find a way to make real art when we paint faces we have come to realize that more important than what we paint on a child’s face is the interaction we have with them as artists. One of the winners at the Unique Art Awards event the previous night, Larry Moss, who makes art out of balloons, spoke about the value of creating art in such an accessible medium, bringing it off the museum wall and into a kid’s life.
Or, in our case, onto a kid’s face. This face, for a girl who said the activity she likes to do is “swinging”,  was painted by Britt, and I’m so fortunate to have such talented artists to work alongside. I plan on posting more fotos from the event tomorrow.
Learn more about all we do at: http://agostinoarts.com/
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The 2012 Unique Art Awards

I am honored to say I have been nominated for an award by the Society of Unique Artists. I’m one of 5 finalists in the category of Unique Painting, and the winner will be announced at the Unique Art Awards event on September 29 in New York. Upon my nomination I was asked to submit a portfolio for the judges’ consideration, which I am posting here, including this short video artist statement:

Christopher Agostino’s Transformations

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I approach the art of transformation as a performance art, whether on stage or at an event.  Continue reading