Another Great One

The Tribeca Film Festival this year was a rousing success, no surprise.  I painted for 8 hours straight, with the assistance of a few line managers, including Eric.  Someday I need to buy a counter so I can see how many faces I've painted.

Meanwhile, here are a few of the photos he took for me.

Just a Little Help

A friend of mine, Joan, an absolutely phenomenal face painter in Arizona, will be painting at a monster truck event out west.  Never having been to one, she didn't quite know what to expect and asked for some design ideas.  She got some good ones for truck themes, and I kicked in an idea for a really quick monster truck, since she's not sure how many interested people she'll have.

Here was my idea.

And her awesome rendition of it in face paint!

Pretty cool!

Just for Fun

A while back, I got a Klutz Pom-Pom Monster Salon.  The other night, just for kicks, I made a monster for Eric.

I don't think he's named it yet.  Any ideas?

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!

Lots and Lots of Henna

I was hired to do henna tonight at a birthday party for a 14-year-old girl.  The kids were great, though I was really disconcerted to hear "Oh, this is from Glee" when songs from my junior high and high school years were playing.  Wow, am I that old?  Really?  When did that happen?!

At any rate, the party was outside, where the humidity was wreaking a bit of havoc with the henna's consistency, but I got some decent results and the kids loved it.  Mom had set up a great little table from me, with printed paisley designs to "set the scene."  That was great!

Some of my pieces...

(The girl pulled this one up on her smartphone; it apparently means "love.")

(In case you can't tell, peace signs are "in" this year!)

And my very last request of the night, from the birthday girl's younger brother, a penguin.  I drew it first in surgical marker to be sure I'd get it right, and you can still see it behind the henna.  The marker is easily washed off, while the henna stain will remain.  It was quite dark at this point, and I was working by a dim porch light, so I wasn't quite as "on" the marker as I thought I was.

And yes, the penguin is holding a little fish.  I just had to.

Bringing Smiles

Yesterday, Eric and I traveled into the Bronx for my friend's 39th birthday party. We got there several hours after the child-friendly, mid-afternoon party had started, since I had a performance yesterday afternoon.  As it started to get dark, some of the younger revelers were getting tired and getting a little sensitive with each other.

The solution?

Face painting, of course!  I keep my kit in the car except when I bring it in between gigs to clean it, and so it was right there in the back seat when I needed it.  It was perfect, and I was happy to do it.  Eric and I didn't tell them what we were doing when we went to the front of the house, and the smiles started as soon as I opened my kit and started to set up.

My friend's daughter has been face painted many times, but never before by me.  She asked for a butterfly, my most requested faced, and let me match the colors to her outfit.

A young neighbor managed to hit upon my second most requested face, the tiger.

Even the ones who didn't want to actually get painted were engrossed with the process, and just watching me paint kept them entertained for a bit.

By the time I finished, it was just getting too dark to see and the kids were happy and ready to play together again.

[All photos taken by Michael G. Curry]

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!