Fifteen Years of Artful Face Painting

I've been thinking a lot lately about where Artful Addiction actually began.

Not with a business plan. No, why would I ever be so normal... :P 

It was someone taking a chance on an artist. They paid me in a gift basket for two days work, and I nearly crashed my car on the way home out of exhaustion!

Back in 2011, Countdown gave me my very first Rotorua face painting gig. I'd already spent years making crafts,  woodburning, accessories, clothes for fairies and trolls, and painting on wine glasses ...

 

but face painting is a completely different world! Countdown Rotorua bought me my first kit, and I had two days to learn how to use it.

Looking back now, I probably should have started with the traditional designs...

Instead, like the business plan,  I completely ignored them, I've never been very good at colouring inside the lines.

I started making up my own dragons, scales, horns and all sorts of imaginative creatures. Unfortunately, my first dragon design looked suspiciously like I'd painted tiny sparkly red demons all over the supermarket at Christmas time 😂

Thankfully people kept booking me anyway.

I did a lot of charity work after that, 6 hour community free for all's with lines 50 children long and more. I learned quickly how to speed paint, but always kept it interesting. Back then, one stroke rainbows wern't a thing.. I had to line up the colours in an artists palette! I could barely stand at the end of those jobs.

My daughter, when she first started helping me

 One of the first families I worked with were a heart children whanau.. they became dear friends. They invited me to Ronald McDonald House in Auckland, where they were sponsoring a special dinner for children and families staying at Starship Hospital. My then primary school aged daughter Azrael came with me dressed as a clown and helped entertain while I painted.

Some of those children I painted were terminally ill... I still think about them to this day.

That evening reminded me that sometimes facepaint and creative expression is a little pocket of light and imagination in the middle of something unimaginably hard. It was heartbreaking, beautiful and deeply humbling all at once. I was dressed as a fairy, but the only magic wand I had was my paintbrush. It was enough.

A few years later I found myself teaching body art and special effects makeup at the Rotorua Youth Centre, along with leading their annual fundraising event House of Horrors from 17 children running around in masks, into 100 plus volunteers, 400 metres of temporary fencing for the maze, and watching young people discover that there really weren't any rules about what they could imagine. 

I don't think I've ever been interested in teaching people to copy me. I've always wanted people to discover their own creativity and empowerment.

Then there have been the wonderfully ridiculous moments.

Winning New Zealand's Sexiest Zombie is probably still one of my favourites. Burnt zombie flesh. A corset. A Thriller flash mob. A towering red wig built from hair and cellophane that seemed to have a personality of its own...

Art has given me some wonderfully strange adventures.

Painting for the NRL

Being Commissioned to create the JUNK LADY from Labyrinth 's makeup in 30 minutes flat

 

Being a lead actor for years and Head of Hair and Makeup for huge interactive theatre productions

Creating beautiful Pastelle Sea-Princess looks and more on creative souls as On-Site Stylist for the Costumiers Fantasy Masquerade Ball Weekend 

  Creating Smiles that light up the whole event, like this little 2 minute sparkle mermaid...

 

 

And sharing the love, by giving away gift hampers and petrol vouchers to people doing good in the community, or in the emergency housing system. (I've done a lot of work for them)

 

When I look at the rebranded Artful Addiction website, I see fifteen years of saying yes to opportunities I created from the ground up with love, art and glitter.

I see children who became teenagers.

Families who still invite me back year after year. (the Heart Kids whanau have children of their own now, and i get to paint the second generation!)

Adults discovering they're just as excited about body art as the kids are.

A business that slowly grew into something that feels completely like me, because it is. My heart, my artful soul... in a whole bunch of entertainment services.

You'll notice a few new experiences waiting for you there too. Face Painting PLUS has arrived, along with two Glitter Bar experiences, Adult Artistry, Fairy Hair, Mini Makeover Parties and allll the colourful things that have found their place over the years.

And by the way, my daughter Azrael and I still work side by side, she's just a little bigger <3 

Ps  - I sell the rainbow one strokes now, NO MORE lining up the colours the hard way! Shop our professional quality nz facepaints here, if you want to try yourself

 

I hope, when you have a wander through the REBIRTHED website, you'll get a little glimpse of what Artful Addiction has always been for me.

A place where imagination gets to come out and play, no matter your age or creative experience.

Thank you for being part of the journey, whether you've been here since those slightly demonic supermarket dragons, or you've only just found my colourful little corner of the world.

I'm so happy to welcome you in.

Love,

Karen x