Face Painting Gallery— Tribal Approach at NY Restoration Project Family Day

Jun7

Saturday June 2, 2012 at the beautifully restored Swindler Cove Park for New York Restoration Project Family Day. For our third event at this beautiful location we chose to paint faces using a tribal mask approach, based particularly on the cultural use of face painting and masks based in nature images and intended to evoke nature spirits.

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To learn more about our programs and performances: http://www.agostinoarts.com

Gator Eating Jose: UV Body Painting at FABAIC 2012 with Kryolan Aquacolors (thestorybehindthefaces.com)
Saraswati – Body Painting at FABAIC 2012 with Kryolan Aquacolors (thestorybehindthefaces.com)
Folktale: The Origins of Moko, the Maori Face Tattoo from New Zealand (thestorybehindthefaces.com)

Derrick Little — Shield Your Heart — Body Paintings for Deva

Mar7

"Candle" by Derrick Little

If you are a facepainter and you never got a chance to meet Deva, you have really missed something special. Deva Prem was one of the first people to befriend me at the FABAIC convention when I felt like a stranger in a strange land, introducing herself to me as “Glitterbug” from New York (her facepainting name), and making me feel like I belonged. I can’t imagine a more supportive and enthusiastic person about this art that we do. Our community lost a loving, shining star with the passing of Deva, one year ago this month. Her very good friend Derrick Little often organized efforts to help her deal with the financial burden of her treatments for breast cancer.

"Angel" by Derrick Little

Derrick is a remarkable artist and one of the most successful bodypainters working in New York, and in homage to his friend he has created a series of bodypaintings titled “Shield Your Heart”—and I can not imagine a more fitting tribute to beautiful Deva than this beautiful art created by her friend. His series of 12 paintings is available for purchase as postcards for just $20, with 50% of all sales going to support You Can Thrive. Please go to: http://www.shieldyourheart.org

from Derrick’s site:

“This project is as “grassroots” as it gets. I am not an organization, a non-profit, nor a corporation. I am an artist who has created and self-funded the art presented here and now I offer it as a gift to raise awareness and money for YOU CAN THRIVE, an organization that helps individuals with breast cancer to access holistic care.

My name is Derrick Little. I am a visual artist and body painter. I started this “Shield Your Heart” postcard project with photographer Liz Liguori in October 2010 when my dear friend, Deva Prem, was in treatments for her breast cancer. This project became a method for me to cope with Deva’s death from Breast Cancer on March 22, 2011. For this campaign, I created a body of work that celebrates both the inherent sexuality of the breast/chest and the fact that the breast/chest serves as a physical “shield” over every person’s heart. I’ve painted 12 traditional symbols of strength on 6 male chests and 6 women’s breasts as metaphoric “shields”. As we approach the one-year anniversary of Deva’s death, I proudly present this body of art in the form of 12 POSTCARDS, available for PURCHASE via DONATION. (With proceeds from every set sold directly benefiting You Can Thrive). I dedicate this art to Deva Prem and every person who has ever been affected by any form of cancer.”

"Knot" by Derrick Little

Derrick has made a remarkable career as a bodypainter in New York, not an easy thing to do. Check out his work: www.BodyArtbyDerrick.com

Breast Cancer Awareness Body Painting Project – Survivor Magazine (thestorybehindthefaces.com)
We Do (Heart) Boobies: Keep A Breast (gliks.com)

follow me for the face of the day: https://twitter.com/#!/storyfaces

Face Painting Gallery — 2011 Holiday and Christmas Faces

Jan9

I call this one "Big Santa"

Some of my favorite faces from this past holiday season, painted at private parties, corporate events and a number of end of the year celebrations for NYC Parks and Recreation sponsored by Derek Jeter’s Turn Two Foundation afterschool program. A large part of our facepainting focus this past year has been to add more imagery to our face designs by incorporating figurative art, in some cases taking a cartooning approach and in others looking for inspiration in fine art, so there are a number of examples of that here, such as Lorraine’s image of a girl lighting a menorah, Jennifer’s designs of Santa and Elves with presents, and my Two Angels inspired by an illustration by William Blake. A number of the faces are just this years’ version of typical holiday images, like Santa Claus and reindeer. At one particular event I had some older kids that wanted to look scary rather than cute, so I had some fun mixing Halloween ideas in to create a Zombie Santa and Rudolph the Red-Nosed WereReindeer. It’s such a nice thing about what we do, that we can try just about anything and know that the people we paint will probably have as much fun wearing it as we have painting it—and, in case they don’t, it all washes off.