Victory Back, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
Back in July I posted some of the body painting with woad, or indigo, that I did that month at the Sirius Rising festival at Brushwood Folklore Center in Sherman, New York. This post will feature selections of my work with regular cosmetic body paints from this year’s festival.
At Sirius Rising, and sometimes at other festivals, I teach workshops and will paint on anyone who will offer their body to my brush, charging no fees but accepting donations.
As I am not a naturally outgoing person, this works well as a way to get to know people. They approach me because they appreciate my artwork. When someone undresses and allows me to paint on their body, the barriers that might otherwise divide us are down.
I think of it as a mutual gift: I get to enjoy the pleasure of painting and the pleasure of physical contact, while the person I paint gets to experience the visual manifestation of their own inner essence that I draw upon in the act of painting on their body. Then, of course, they get the experience of being noticed and admired by others, and a few of those others may approach me to be painted themselves.
In doing this work, I try to see each person’s own particular beauty, to honor their spirit and enhance their presence. The paintings above and below are the back and front of someone who just survived a bout with cancer. I see the painting as representing the victory dance of her life force.
Victory Front, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
Next, two paintings made on another woman’s back on two different days, a flower of potential and a bird of aspiration:
Flora, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
Upward, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
People at pagan festivals love nature imagery. A green moth:
Green Moth, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
A tree goddess:
Dryad, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
A traditional green man:
Green Man, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
A fiery breast:
Flames, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
The young man below, Mihael, wrote about his experience being painted on his Facebook page. A friend of his took this picture with Mihael’s camera:
Fred Hatt painting Mihael, 2009
Mihael writes, “The brush tickled at times and sent goose bumps all over my body. . . It only took about 30-45 minutes for him to create this work. . . Fred said this was the perfect image for me. He took all the energy I had within me to make this a great creation.”
Phoenix, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
Mihael continues, “I had already started to burn before the image was complete. . . I spent all day without a shirt and now my cancer is in the shape of a phoenix. . . After the paint had been washed away, a negative of the work was still as impressive as the final painting. I couldn’t believe how many people commented on it as well as my sunburn which I’m still suffering from.”
Phoenix Burn, 2009, afterimage of bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
That must have been a bit painful. I would certainly recommend using sunscreen before being painted and walking around in the sun all day. This was Mihael’s first visit to this kind of festival, and I think the burn served as a kind of initiation for him. There is certainly something appropriate about the image of a bird that rises from fire imprinted in the form of a burn.
