REMBRANDT BLAKE (with bonus frittata)

If you're my friend, you know my face from the art community, and we've shared a cocktail or coffee. If you've gotten even closer, then you know I've gone to great lengths to make you the world's greatest mix tape or my famous "Fall in Love Frittata." Perhaps your experience lies between awkwardness and avoidance since that time I went through your recycling bin to string together bits of beer cans to create kinetic sculptures. But, if you are my mother's stylist, then baby, you get the ROYAL treatment. Blake was transformed into a fine art masterpiece... the subject of some romantic 17th century oil painting. I was suprised that Blake let me paint his flaxen hair and mustache an espresso bean brown! And then he reminded me of another paint job I did for him, in which he was blue.

image by Ryder Gledhill Photography

The "victim" for this piece, DeLand socialite, Blake Henschel, was fresh off the plane from artful Amsterdam. I thought it only fitting to paint him while studying the lighting in this self portrait with a lace collar, by the famous Dutch painter, Rembrandt van Rijn. From the altered eyebrows, to the molded shadows on the forehead, I really enjoyed recreating the lighting, and learning from the master himself!

I see things now, that I should have darkened, lightened, blended more... but body painting is so temporary, if you don't get it right on the first go, you can't just paint over it another day, like you can with oil painting. It washes away, without much effort, but the experience still remains.

BONUS!!!!!!!!!
Shannon's Fall in Love Frittata Recipe
2 Medium Yukon gold potatoes
5 organic eggs
2 Tbsp Coconut oil
dash of water, or half and half
1/3 cup available veggies. (but my favorites are asparagus tips, colorful bell peppers,zuchini, squash, spinach and tomatoes.)
2 oz Gruyere
2 oz Goat cheese Salt and pepper to taste sprinkle of herbs. I like sage, cilantro, rosemary and basil for this recipe. Chives if you ain't kissy face w anybody.

1. Grate the potatoes, and transfer them from the chopping board to a dish towel, and roll them up in it like a cigar. take them to the sink and squeeze all the water out of the potatoes for a minute.
2. Melt the coconut oil in a pan on medium high heat, and sprinkle the potato shreds evenly across the oil. Salt and pepper. Saute until one side is brown. Lift up the edges of the potato pancake, and when it is brown, with courage, flip the potato layer in the pan. Salt and pepper.
3. While that side is browning, crack and whip the daylights out of the eggs in a bowl, and add just a little bit of water or half and half. Salt and pepper. Dump the eggs right on top of the browned potato layer, and put the sliced veggies and some of the herbs and Gruyere on top.
4. When the egg starts to solidify and bubble on the top, with much courage, estimate, how much egg will go on the stove top, and how much will go in the pan if you flip the thing at this point again. If you are 60% or over "total mess" then take a dinner plate, and place over the top of the pan. Flip the pan, so your frittata is on the plate, and slide it back into the pan to continue cooking. If you think you can mostly get everything back into the frying pan, do it. Never miss an opportunity to flip food in a frying pan. Cuz that makes you... a Frittata Anarchist!
5 Stick your knife into the center. If the frittata is tender but not too wet, slide it back onto the plate, Veggie side up, potato side down. Garnish with herbs and goat cheese. Slice it in quarters or like a pie.
6. Fall in love.

THE ORIGINAL BLONDE BOMBSHELL

model, Sierra Missed, photographer, Ryder Gledhill

What happens when you reschedule a body paint shoot five times, and the model drives 20 miles in the opposite direction of the photo studio? Magic. Sierra drove her last drops of gas going East on 44, instead of West, and almost drove into the Pacific. I went out to find her at the ocean, and threw $20 in her tank, giddy with excitement about the prospect of painting this highly sought after, and fun to work with model. She rocked it out for me at Nude Nite 2013, and it had been months talking about doing something with her. Originally, I wanted to paint her as Bonnie, from Bonnie and Clyde, and even had a pearl handled pistol lined up as a prop, but she INSISTED that Marilyn would be the better choice. I like to make everybody happy, so we browsed some photos, and initially, I thought, OK, this could be a really boring body paint job... but, She already kind of looked like Marilyn, with her bleach blonde cropped cut, and her legs for miles. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I did do my best. I worked off of a few iconic images of Marilyn, in her gold dress, and it WAS a very boring paint job. It was as traditional as painting clothing on the model. But then, I took my Wolfe White makeup, and started to outline where different shadows would drop, according to the photo, as Sierra looked confused and Ryder and I both wondered if this was the time to be experimenting on the model. I continued laying down graphic shapes, to block in with highlights and darks on the areas which would normally be flesh toned skin. The goal was NOW different, and I painted her to look exactly like the famous iconic photo of the model-actress, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I enhanced her lips, WAY outside her natural lip line, painting on the shine, producing a totally different brow arch up the sides of the nose, placement and shape, and nailing the shadow placement to translate for flat photo lighing. Note the large plum shadow on her chin that goes on her neck. It feels so good to do something daring!

You can see from this collage, how her skin is painted. You can see her natural lip line on the top row, with just red lipstick. It was a concern of mine, to paint the lips to Marilyn's identical shape, because red is not so forgiving, after I painstakingly painted her whole face in milky white tones. Wiping a red stain away would NOT have been fun. Luckily, Sierra was statue still for the lips, which to me, is the most difficult area to paint. Can you tell that the model is covered from her forehead all the way down to her hips, in paint?! That is the beauty of the illusion I like to play with when doing fine art body painting. Her chest is painted bright opaque white, and her cheeks are painted with a deep brown purple makeup, in a graphic way, to make the image perfect to the iconic photo. I even painted a little brown shadow on the underside of her nose, that drops onto her cheek, which looks bizarre when the light source isn't hitting her perfectly. I really had to team up and see eye to eye with the photographer, Ryder Gledhill, who ALWAYS knows how to light things, and always does his best work, on each piece, just like myself!

I even brought some foil paper, and some shreds of gold material to body glue on the sides of her painted dress to bring more illusion to the piece. The professional product for body glue that I use is called Pros Aide. It is what FX artists use to glue prosthetic pieces on to skin, in monster movies. Then there's this Marilyn.

As an artist, I tend to admire other painters and artists and strive to pay homage to them in a lot of my body painting, honoring the way that art history meets body painting, in more than just an "ancient tribal warrior painting" kind of way. Thanks again to Ryder Gledhill Photography, and Sierra Missed for such great faces to have fun with! Sierra affectionately refers to these model shots as "Horrible Drag Queen Marilyn."

So tell me, Norma Jean... is it true what they say about gentlemen preferring blondes?

SWAN LAKE

Beautiful Allisa Princess White modeled for me at six different RAW events, with bells on.  Her enormously long hair has been styled this time, by Stylist of the Year for RAW Orlando, Angel Cardona.  I loved the collaboration.

I attend a monthly artist critique group, led by my good friend, Parker Sketch.  At this group, visual artists show their paintings and sculptures among friends.  I am also a fine artist, as well as a body painter. Ashlie Rolfe, the director for RAW Artists Orlando did a presentation, at critique group explaining the nature of RAW, as a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with other like minded artists, showcase our work, sell work, gain clients and compete.  During the 2012-2013 season, I created my RAW Artist profile, at http://www.rawartists.org/bombshellbodyart.  Then I faithfully showed my body paintings at RAW each month with live models, made it to the semi finals, and then the finals, where we were judged by top Orlando art critics, and to my surprise,  I ended up winning Makeup Artist of the Year for RAW Orlando.  It was unexpected, since I was competing against actual beauty makeup artists who were reps for major makeup brush brands, and gore masters. It was big deal for me, to cross that bridge between what is fine art, body painting, and makeup.  Here is my FAVORITE of the many paint jobs that I did with RAW Artists Orlando, with a theme of Swan Lake.  Guests LOVED having their photos taken with my faithful, mini-ballerina model, Allisa Princess White.  (She even made her own tu-tu, and brings her own false lashes! More than that... she's ALWAYS ON TIME!!!  Good Model!  Good Model!)

Here I am in chiaroscuro, about half way with the painting.  I am detailing my blocks of color with my recognizable, stylized black outline,  a signature of my work. 

The regal swan.  She's sexy and she knows it! 

Gorgeous ladies posing with Allisa, who loves entertaining guests!  This looks like boudoir  fantasy scene for sure!   Ooh la la!... Josie Brooks Photography

This is the inner self, the essence of a graceful woman.  I couldn't help but make the portrait resemble a good friend of mine from art school, Jessica.   I miss her;  she is such a beautiful woman inside and out, and appropriate for deeper meaning to be infused into this particular body painting. ...Josie Brooks Photography 

See how the arm is painted so the swan's tail continues as her body wraps around.
Emily Jourdan Photography 

A-CONCH-ALYPSE: Fantasy Fest 2012

 
Fantasy Fest 2012... what can I say? It was like a fun-house mirror dream, which I couldn't wake up from. Not all my experiences on the road have been cake walks, this one in particular was pretty insane. All I can say, is thank God for friends. Friends and Rum Runners. For those of you who don't know what Fantasy Fest is, it is an out and out Bacchanal, the largest Naked party in the country, possibly in the world. It is a festival with brilliant costumes, according to the theme of the year, in liberal Key West. Now, if you haven't been to Key West, it's full of retired entrepreneurs, people looking to create a new identity, and people running from their past lives. It is one of the most friendly, and accepting places on Earth, and when I say that, I mean, at Fantasy Fest, the guy who is butt ass nekkid, standing next to the woman who is wearing a dress made of astro-turf, who is talking to a group of affluent metro-sexual swingers, and the group of seniors, male and female all in one piece bathing suits with flower swim caps... ALL OF THEM, are welcome to behave however they would like, and do whatever drugs they like openly, and have Margaritas and beer for breakfast, all over the island during Fantasy Fest. People come to celebrate, world wide, to... well... play out their fantasies! And on every corner, there is a body painter. And every airbrush T-shirt shop guy comes out of the woodwork, claiming to be a body painter. I respect my patrons, so I make sure that what I use on their skin, is hypoallergenic, and suitable for skin. It is makeup, NOT PAINT. I go to Fantasy Fest, to be the best painter I can be, do the best work I can with every job. I take it seriously. My patrons want to have their body paint fantasies fulfilled at a premium, so it is the least I can do, to make sure that they have a good experience! 
 
These above shots,are of my promotional model, Crystal. Her job was to be painted and pull people in from off the streets, to be painted, or to stand in my big window, and look cute. She did her job very well. During the event, I was supposed to stay on site, where I would be body painting. It was written into the Entertainment Agreement, that I would stay in the apartment above the work space. When I got there, the "apartment" was a construction zone, with sawdust, and workers, and a lot of noise. It was unlivable. So, I met this bartender, and he was kind enough to allow me to sleep on his boat. 
  Although it was a very nice gesture, I felt more comfortable staying somewhere else the following days. I just really needed to be rested and feel well in order to do this job. All the hotels were booked, so, I bought an air mattress, to sleep on, DOWNSTAIRS, at the venue, which was mostly swept of the sawdust. My other body painting girlfriend stayed there with me, so that I wouldn't feel freaked out. At 8 in the morning, workers came in and gave us a rude wakeup. "This is the best work site we ever been on!!! Body painting, AND girls in bed as soon as we get to the job!!!" Emma and I quickly gathered our things in a stupor, and piled into my Honda Element. We drove to the CVS across the island to wash up and brush our teeth and get dressed in their bathroom. It was there that we tried to put a positive spin on everything, and we invented the game, "Reasons Why We're Not Homeless."
 
The following nights, a girlfriend of mine snuck me into her plush hotel room, and we even got a beautiful complimentary breakfast each morning. I was SO grateful for this, and it worked out perfectly. There were a few other business complications, but it would be hardly entertaining for my readers, and I don't feel like re-living the fiasco. Let's just say, that the next Fantasy Fest I do will be hosted by corporate, instead of mom and pop! Lesson learned! Here's some more body paint!
 


I told you about the one pieces...

FETISH CON

I worked Fetish Con, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Tampa, with curiosity, more than anything. I was able to meet some amazing people at the events, which were never dull, and always eye opening. World class photographer, Patrick Oden, took this amazing photo, of my client, the Number One female gladiator for Car Lifting in the world, Amber Steel. I also got to paint some pretty famous mistresses and masters of the amateur porn industry. This actress wanted a sexy way to honor her body beyond wearing the rubber dresses that she was trying on in the ladies' room when I met her. (Rubber Dresses abound at FetCon.) She chose a simple bronzer with leopard print over her gorgeous sun kissed skin tone. Body Art is weightless, and non restrictive, if that is what you're going for! Capricorn Studios contacted me before the event, to see if I would paint a model, advertising their gallery at the "Art of Kink" art show each day. Here is one of the models.

A great perk to this event, is that I got Creative Loafing columnist, for Sex and Love, Shawn Alff to follow me around, as well as his awesome photographer friend, Brian James.

Brian James Photography.

I also got to meet the famous smoking fetish actress, Goldie Red, laughing here, with writer, Shawn Alff. She was over the moon about the mask I painted on her face, and asked me to autograph her Polaroid of us. How sweet! Here is a link to Shawn Alff's article about Bombshell Body Art!

  http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2012/08/02/body-artist-shannon-holt-on-painting-a-living-canvas#.UX7OzLXUdx8

I also get a mention in Shawn Alff's scandalous article about FetishCon.
http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2012/08/10/50-shades-of-fetish-con-pov-scenes-from-the-2012-convention-nsfw#.UX7PJ7XUdx8

KONG TAKES DELAND

Photo by Ryder Gledhill

This was a humorous paint job, I did on model, Evan Macleod, to attract attention to local business, Newfangled Modern Market. The event was Tropical Nights, where the finest folks of small town Deland, Florida put on their leis, and Hawaiian gear and live it up! Old money, and new money folks, Stetson University students and townies gather together drinking pink Maitais around town, wear crazy hand embellished hats, and browse the shops for specials on merchandise, antiques and art. If you were lucky enough to see Kong, he gladly steps to your side for a fun photo op, and is an essential part of the character that makes Tropical Nights a ridiculously fun slice of small town Americana.

Photo by Ryder Gledhill

NUDIST RESORT WIN!

During the Summer, I called up Cypress Cove Nudist Resort, in Florida to offer a promotional package to advertise up coming events for their guests. I traveled out to the Resort with photographer, Ryder Gledhill, and my tried and true model Katie O'Neil. It turned out, what they wanted to promote... was a body art competition!

THEN, because they booked my TIME, Cypress Cove also had me do a promotion for a Pirate 5K nude run, their Parrot Head Festival, and a breast cancer awareness event, all on the same model! She was covered with paint at the days end, both arms, torso, back and legs. Here's a shot that wasn't used by the resort, but shows Katie's awesome modeling skills.

A whole year later... I came to the competition, and competed with some of the best body painters in Central Florida. It was a great day of comradery among industry friends. The BONUS, was that I asked Lyn Sky to be my model, and she agreed, telling me she always wanted to work together. WOW! What a dream come true. Lyn is a professional model at the top of her game as a stilt walker and entertainer, and costume designer. Just knowing her is pretty amazing. Here is one shot in progress.

As the competition went on, and everyone got more comfortable with the nudity all around us at the resort, even the clothes on some of the artists on either side of me soon started to dwindle away to bare skin. "It's so hot in here!" They said. I opted to stay in the clothes in which I came. Finally, the artists and judges walked to the pool deck to be judged by the crowd. Lyn and I took second place.

THEN, we were automatically entered into the AANR National competition, and took FIRST PLACE!

The win gave us such a rush, and overjoyed, Lyn and I ran right over to the tiki bar called "CHEEKS" and had some rum runners with new friends. So grateful to have been a part of this event since the beginning. Cypress Cove is a beautiful and welcoming resort, for those in the mood to strip down! This was one of those moments, where you just know you've had a fine, fine, day at work.

INDUSTRY FRIENDS

Last year at convention was a dream come true. I met some painters who's work I idolized, placed 3rd in international body painting, and got to hang out with my paint idols at the after party! This year, I lost my title to World Class Body Painter and Instructor, Mark Reid... and made all new friends. Above the fabulous classes, better than the pool bar and room service, are the true friends that we make in the industry. This year, I met my new friend (and rockin' model) Suzy. We made instant friends as we loitered on the porch of the conference center at the hotel. I got the opportunity to paint her twice, and laughed through tears and beers together. This was my competition piece for Illusions, the top magazine for face and body painters to showcase their work. I went with the classic art history theme of the Greek myth, Leda and the Swan.

My girl totally had my back, when I changed theme suddenly, and dressed up my artwork with this awesome gold lame disco top, dark denim, and tall tail kicking pointy heels. When you get an ornate paint job, it adds so much to the over all look to dress it up like this.

This second paint job, took place in a jam room, with a couple hundred other body painters! Can you imagine the energy in a space where there are so many other artists being creative? It is very emotional.

Suzy was dressed as this fabulous belly dancer, (which she does in real life) so I painted a Ganesha and a Krishna and sacred cow on her, to go with the "Bollywood" theme at FABAIC. Suzy had painted her own mask.

This paint job was a suprise. After I finished painting Suzy and sent her off to have her photo taken by the fabulous Thomas Ledford, I was approached by this handsome painter, next to me. He said he needed some help finishing up his Ferrari piece, and needed me to paint the little logo horse on the model. He said he was watching me work on Suzy, and that he bet I would be good at it. "Sure!" I said. I looked up the logo on my phone, and tried to paint it with precision for him. "Good," he said. Next, he wanted me to ALSO letter the chest in the Ferrari font! I was surprised that this artist wanted me to tackle the focal point of his artwork, and I told him I wasn't sure 20 minutes was enough time to freehand this lettering before they closed the jam room. He told me to take a stab at it. He said, "imagine you have a client, and you HAVE to get the model out on the floor NOW!!!" So, I jumped right in at the challenge. I was hurrying, and then he revealed, that he was the famous Rodrigo Piedra, of Costa Rica body paint, and he is the contracted body painter for Ferrari! http://www.rodrigopiedra.com

Rodrigo used his model as a teaching platform, just for me. As I was packing up my paint, happy that I had painted with this cool and talented body painter and architect, he whistled to Jinny Houle. Jinny is from Canada, and is a top makeup artist for Cirque acrobatic performers, and revered teacher to the entire face painting industry. Rodrigo asked Jinny to do the eye makeup! http://www.jinnymakeup.com/ I am so honored to help create this special piece with two of the top painters in the industry. It may have just been a fun piece to paint for each of them, but painting with them helped give more clarity to my future as a body painter.

All photos in this posting, by Thomas Ledford at FABAIC