I have been drawing and painting all kinds of things
for as long as I can remember, but only occasionally,
and until the summer of 2004 I had never before
thought of painting on PEOPLE!
After talking with other party entertainers about face
painting and cheek art, I decided to give it a try. I
bought a small starter set from SNAZAROO and
began offering cheek art as an add-on to our pony
ride and petting zoo business. I got my first bookings
in late 2004, and the response from children and
parents was so overwhelmingly positive that I soon
became hooked.
I bought every book and magazine I could get my
hands on, and subscribed to all the mailing lists I
could find that even mentioned face painting. I soon
learned that cheek art is apparently not nearly as
popular, nor does it command the respect that "real"
face painting does. Somehow, "cheek art" brings to
mind unskilled volunteers at church carnivals or town
fairs, where full face and body painting has been
elevated to a much higher rung on the art ladder.
At first I was put off by the efforts of my fellow
artists to encourage me to experiment with full face
painting. I truly enjoy the detail and precision
required for impressive cheek art, and I had no
interest in churning out "3-minute tiger faces" at
parties. Being the ONLY advertised face painter I'm
aware of in the Texas Panhandle, I could pretty much
choose to do whatever I liked, but to my chagrin, my
mailing list friends kept urging me to "just give it a
try."
During my first year of cheek art, I often visited the
SNAZAROO website to browse the hundreds of
photographs of other artists' work, the vast majority
of which is full face and/or body painting, and most of
which I never dreamed I could duplicate, much less
create anything of my own to compare.
Then, in November of 2005, for no reason I can
fathom, something snapped inside me and suddenly I
had an irresistable urge to TRY a full face. I decided
that at my last booked pony party for the season, I
would offer to paint for free, just so I'd have an
opportunity to give the full face thing a shot. As it
turned out, there were only five children at the party,
two of which had no interest in being painted at all.
The other three, all girls, wanted ONLY cheek art! I
was crushed, but in that moment of disappointment I
vowed to myself that from that day forward I would
carry my painting kit with me at all times so that I
would never miss an opportunity again.
A few days later, the day before Thanksgiving, a staff
potluck gathering was scheduled at the office where I
work. I knew there would be at least two or three
kids there, so I made sure that my kit was in order
and camera batteries were charged. I had four takers
that day, three of which chose full face or mask
designs. I finally had my opportunity, and with lots of
time available, I was able to make the best of my
leap into the world of full face painting. The day
AFTER Thanksgiving, I was able to convince my
sister-in-law to let me use her face as a canvas,
which resulted in my very first original and entirely
full face painting (the Harlequin/Egyptian combo on
the full face gallery page.)
I do still enjoy my cheek art very much, but a new
world has been revealed to me, and off I go to
embrace it, with sponges and brushes in hand!