Tag Archives: Traditional

Is a painted body naked?

by Christopher Agostino

Is bodypainting just a way to get naked women out in public? I saw the promotional film for a documentary in the works that’s about bodypainting as a fine art, and in it an artist takes real umbrage when the filmmaker asks him if bodypainting exploits women. Although I sympathize with the artist’s annoyance with the question, since we work in a field that is too often represented by disturbing images from Key West showing up in your emails, or lots of naked painted people on bicycles, I can understand why an interviewer would ask it. In a group discussion a few years back with the genius behind Pro-shields (designed to protect the innocent by thoroughly covering nipples on female models to be bodypainted) the question turned to why such trivial items as whether the outline of a nipple is visible or not under the paint can determine whether people find bodypainting offensive or not. I heard a phrase often repeated that in body art the painting is what is meant to be looked at, not the body, and that folks that are just seeing (or voyeuristically enjoying) the nakedness of the body are missing the art. Speaking as a bodypainter who puts painted people (male and female) into the public view, I think this is disingenuous and it puts too much of the burden on the viewer when it is us, the body artists, who choose to present this as our art. Bodypainting is certainly not clothing, and therefore does not objectively remove or cover the nakedness of the model, however much it transforms their identity (and I do feel that a well painted body looks more fully clothed than, say, a women in bikini at the beach). Clothing protects the body and it changes and disguises the shape of the body. Bodypaint celebrates the body, specifically it celebrates the beautiful form of the human body — or we would be painting on flat canvas instead. So when someone looks at the model we have painted they should be seeing the model, the body, as well as the art.

Painted at the Face and Body Art International Convention, 2009, on a beautiful model.

The idealized human form in Greek and Roman art — naked.

In Western Culture the veneration of the human form is exemplified by the prevalence of the naked body in art and painting, which goes back to the Classical Greek conception of the naked human form as being the symbolic representation of the perfection of Nature. Athletes, we are told, competed naked in the ancient Olympics. In fact, as the influence of the Classical Greek culture spread, body arts declined in Western Cultures because the marking of the body was seen as a disfigurement of the perfect form of the naked body. Perhaps it is a sign of our continuing cultural progression that bodypainting has begun to enter the main stream of public perception again, for this is an art form that reaches beyond the Greeks. The return of body art into Western/European Culture is a world-inspired expansion of our understanding of art.

The tradition of celebrating the human body continues in Western art

The underlying reasons for traditional body art — meaning the use of bodypainting, tattooing and scarification in traditional cultures — are in its social and ritualistic functions. As cultures evolve over time, these ritualistic functions gain aesthetic values as well, they become art. In “Primitive Art”, Franz Boas writes about how, once the symbolic requirements of the mask (or bodyart) are achieved, the mask maker’s goal is to make the object beautiful  — the “artfulness” is always important.  When we look at cultural examples in which body art has progressed past ritual to the point where it is done for more purely aesthetic reasons, when it has become a “fashion”, at the foundation of those acts is a desire to celebrate the innate beauty of the human form. Through art, to pay homage to what God (or Nature) has made when he made man. This is the cultural explanation for what is perhaps the most profound use of body art that can be sited: the body painting of the Southeast Nuba culture of Sudan, a tribal culture in which individuals turned themselves daily into living, painted works of art as a veneration of the wonder of creation, demonstrated in the perfection of the human form. This was done when the individual was in their youth, their prime, their bodies in peak form. The older or the infirm did not paint themselves. 

“Whatever the source of the designs used on the body, the critical factor is that the body must be emphasized, complimented, enhanced. No design or artistic treatment must distract from the presentation of the physical form itself  the chief reason, after all, for the personal art rests in the proper cultural exposure and celebration of the healthy body.” — James Farris, Nuba Personal Art

I compare this to our modern body artists, and suggest we should own up to it. If we are not celebrating the beauty of the human form when we paint bodies, why do we predominantly paint ideally shaped models, female or male?

This is not an exploitation of models, women or men. No more than Alfred Steiglitz was exploiting Georgia O’Keeffe in his photographs. This is a celebration. This is art. This is art painted on naked people, and there is nothing wrong in that, because people are beautiful whether they are naked or not.

Learn more at my Body Painting Page https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/body-painting/

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

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

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World Masks – Facepainting Workshop

I had a wonderful experience yesterday sharing this art of transformation with a enthusiastic group of High School students. First I did a one hour presentation of my Transformation Lecture for a very attentive audience of art students.

Then we did a facepainting training session with a select group of the students, first demonstrating the application technique and then having them work in pairs to paint each other’s faces. After that it was students painting students, as the High School artists had the chance to paint several classes of Elementary School students, from pre-K to grade 4.

We were in an inspiring setting, surrounded by the students’ artwork on exhibit for their annual art and music festival. With the opportunity for each of them to paint several faces their confidence and creativity grew over the course of the session. In between the groups of younger students, the artists would add to and refine the faces they had painted on each other, creating several examples of striking designs. One of the joys I derive when teaching facepainting to new students is how they surprise me with what they create. Working without the pre-conceptions of experienced facepainters, they will combine colors and design elements with such freedom that I wind up learning  from my students.

Using traditional tribal designs as the models for the facepainting helps move the students past concerns about their ability as painters and fosters that sense of creative freedom. Tribal faces don’t need to look like any specific thing — they are celebrations of colors, lines, dots and shapes in any way the artist chooses. I share with them my belief that more important than what you paint on someone’s face is how they feel about being painted, and encourage the artists to make a connection with the child they are painting. Before each class came in to be painted, I talked with the younger kids about how wild they would look, in designs from tribal cultures around the world, and that their High School student artist wasn’t even going to ask them what they want to be because every face is a surprise. I can safely say that a good time was had by all. The artists did great job and we all enjoyed seeing how excited the kids were to look into the mirror and see the creative works of art they had become.

To learn about the lecture program:  https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/lecture/

For more info on the tribal faces that we used as inspiration, see: https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/2011/04/12/traditional-facepainting-world-masks-workshop/

 

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Rebirth revisited — Ukrainian Eggs and Ancient Eggs

In response to my post about the spring and how I choose to experience the season of rebirth, one of our company artists, Laura Metzinger, sent in this post:

From Laura:  I had long been interested in learning how to do the traditional Ukrainian (pysanky) wax-resist method of egg decorating and my library offered a workshop in 1990. I left with enough of the basics to continue to explore it on my own, and discovered that supplies could be found in NYC at Surma, a little Ukrainian shop, est. 1918, on East 7th St. They have a wide selection of books and tools and are always more than happy to offer suggestions and advice. SURMA – The Ukrainian Shop

The samples of my work here include some traditional and original designs, and all were created between 1990 and 2000. While pysanky eggs are associated with Easter, the practice of decorating eggs pre-dates Christianity, and hearkens back to the celebration of seasonal changes.

kistka (tool for applying the wax) and beeswax cake, with an egg showing an original design of Laura's

The tool for applying wax to the eggs is called a kistka. Although there are sleek, electric versions available, I like to use the more primitive, copper wire wrapped tool. It’s used by heating the copper cone at the end of the tool in a candle flame, and then pushing the point into a cake of beeswax. The heat draws up the wax into the cone, and then is used to draw designs on the egg. I use a darkened beeswax, as it’s easier to see when applied to the white egg and lighter colors. It’s especially nice to be doing this in a group, as the candles burning and the pleasant smell of beeswax create a very special atmosphere.

The process calls for working the design colors going from light to dark. Anything that you want to be white must be drawn with wax first. The wax prevents those sections from taking on any subsequent colors. Working from light to dark, wax is applied and the egg is dipped into progressively darker shades. After the design is completed, the egg is held closely alongside the candle flame. This is the best part; as the wax melts and is wiped off, the brilliant colors come into view.

Eggs with Trypillion designs

I love the symbolic meanings given to the imagery, which vary according to the source. And the use of eggs as a symbol of rebirth is timeless. All the colors have specific meanings, as do the designs. Most obvious is the use of plant and animal images. Earlier meanings were associated with the seasons, farming and harvest. Later on, many of the images were associated with Christianity. I have incorporated designs from other cultures, such as Native American symbols, which are very close to the Eastern European designs. I’ve also done a number of Trypillion designs on brown eggs. The predominantly black & red swirling designs come from artifacts discovered in the Ukraine, and are believed to symbolize the female, from whom new life comes. There are a number of ways of approaching the design elements. There are repeating border designs, end-cap designs and pictures. Traditionally, the repeating border designs are stylized plant elements. I like to incorporate Native American wave symbols in my borders and end-cap designs.

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Thank you, Laura. With my perspective I can’t help but make a connection between this tradition of decorating eggs to the discovery of etched ostrich eggs from 60,000 years ago — some of the oldest objects yet to show the use of symbolism by early humans. From the online article in Science News: “The unusually large sample of 270 engraved eggshell fragments, mostly excavated over the past several years at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa, displays two standard design patterns…. Each pattern enjoyed its own heyday between approximately 65,000 and 55,000 years ago…. Researchers already knew that the Howiesons Poort culture, which engraved the eggshells, engaged in other symbolic practices, such as engraving designs into pieces of pigment, that were considered to have been crucial advances in human behavioral evolution. But the Diepkloof finds represent the first archaeological sample large enough to demonstrate that Stone Age people created design traditions, at least in their engravings.

See the article: http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/stone-age-eggshells.html?print=true and another  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8544332.stm