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IMATS New York 2012 — International Make-Up Artist Trade Show

Right from the entrance, the featured images were the same kind of full, exciting designs you'd see at Face and Body Painting Conventions

I had an unusual day today. I got to go to a make up show that I wasn’t working at. At IMATS yesterday I painted a body at Kryolan’s booth (and photos of that will be posted here soon), but today I had the day off and just went to see the show. It is a trade show, primarily a marketplace for professionals and amateurs to see and buy product (usually at big discounts), with some demonstrations at booths and stage presentations. It felt like a busman’s holiday for me, working around the booths with Lorraine and some artist friends. I’ve posted before (NY Makeup Show Bodypainting  —  Bodypainter or Makeup Artist?) that being at shows like these reminds me that I am not a “makeup artist”, I am painter who paints on people, so there is a lot of cosmetic products and makeup techniques that I have no connection to—however, as a “body painter” it is gratifying to see that the work that seems to attract the most interest at these events is the most extensive: special fx, body paintings, and extreme glamour. Continue reading →

Watanabe No Tsuna and the Ibaraki Demon in Japanese Art

Come see me at the Kryolan Professional Makeup booth at IMATS New York, April 14 to see the painted body I’ve designed based on this image research and the story of the battle between Watanabe no Tsuna and the Irabaki Demon.

I had no idea this story was such a well known legend until I did a Google Image search of “Watanabe No Tsuna” and turned up a lot of results, many of them depictions of the battle with the Irabaki Demon. Here are a few:

Depicting the demon having recovered her arm - by Kiyotada

Continue reading →

Revolutionary Slave Masquerader from Haiti, photograph by Phyllis Galembo — from Maske

by Christopher Agostino

I want to post just one more of the exceptional photographs by Phyllis Galembo from her book Maske, found in the article in National Geographic Magazine, April 2012. See the online article and her website for more.

 

 

“The tools of modern revolutions, a gun and a phone, are held by a masked youth. Other parts of his hellish carnival attire connect to Haiti’s past. To symbolize the suffering of slaves, he’s wrapped in a rope, his skin is glazed in charcoal and molasses—an inexpensive, easy-to-make masquerade worn since colonial times.” – from the text in the article by Cathy Newman. Charcoal and molasses!

These photographs are compelling not only for the quality of the mask and costumes, but also for the way Galembo photographs the masqueraders. There is a sense of presence to the mask and costumes in these photographs different than what you get looking at a photograph of a masquerader in motion, such as dancing or participating in the ceremony the mask is meant for—and certainly the images are much more powerful than the standard textbook shot of the mask just hanging on a wall. Her photographs focus so completely on the new being created by the mask and costume, and that is what I am responding to as I admire them.

She travels to these places and “puts her ear to the ground in search of masquerade ceremonies.” To photograph the outfits she has the masquerader pose themself however they choose, in front of a wall or such as a backdrop, and shoots just 12 photos. “‘Either I have it, or I don’t,’ she says.”

see the previous post about her work:

Three Boys from Haiti Become Pa Wowo — the Body Painting Photo of the Year

See my fine art bodypainting at  https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/body-painting/

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