One Coat or Two?

When you make bold statements such as "I love adventure," you better be prepared for someone to call you on it.  It happened to me a few weeks ago when my friends Brenda and Mimi threw down the gauntlet and invited me to attend the North American Body Painting Championships this weekend.  My first question was whether they wanted me to go as an observer or a participant.  I love a good adventure, but I don't claim to be an artist and I certainly wasn't willing to serve as the canvas.  I could probably paint a mean set of cat's whiskers on your cheeks or perhaps a couple of balloons, but one glance at the NABPC website and I knew I would be way out of my league.  Painting like a kindergartner and modesty would get you nowhere in this art world.

I am fairly certain Brenda and Mimi thought I would chicken out at the last minute, but yesterday finally arrived and the three of us went to a hotel in downtown to see what this other slice of life was all about.  Upon paying my entrance fee, I made my first observation:  I was incredibly disappointed that the woman working at the ticket counter didn't paint my wristband on me.  She just strapped a plastic band around my arm.  I had arrived at the supposed pinnacle of the body art world and this woman couldn't even be bothered to doodle a little band around my wrist?

Setting my disappointment aside, Brenda, Mimi and I headed into the ballroom to observe the final hour of the competitors finishing up their works of art to be judged by a panel of "experts" in body painting.  My second observation: I was the only one there wearing a turtleneck not made of acrylic paint.  There was actually a woman wearing a tuxedo that had been painted on her.  I didn't realize this was a black tie event, so you can imagine my embarrassment at being underdressed (or overdressed as it were).

The artists had six hours to complete their competition piece for the judges.  My third observation: The models must have been very in touch with their "nothing boxes," because they had to stand still for six hours while someone slathered them in a coat of paint.  I would never be cut out for that.  My mind would never slow down enough for me to be completely inert for six hours.  The "canvasses" couldn't sit down or lower their arms to their sides for fear of messing up the artwork.  You could definitely see that some of the models were starting to wear thin toward the end of the six hour stint.

All in all, it was kind of fascinating to observe this competition.  While some of the end results were far too odd for my taste, there was no doubt these people were talented.  They took the human form and transformed it into something otherworldly.  Here was my favorite:

So you can consider this adventure officially checked off my list (and I didn't even know until two weeks ago that it was on my list).  Brenda, Mimi and I all agreed that we were glad we went to see this unusual art exhibition, but we also decided that making this an annual event was not in the cards for us.  And you can also rest easy that I won't be calling upon you to let me hone my painting skills for next year's competition.