My Body as a Canvas

What is in a photograph, a snap shot in time?

A story?

A memory?

An emotion?

As I stand in the same place I've been for the last five hours, naked but for the cotton between my buttocks, clad only in renaissance artwork and being captured continually by photographers professional and amateur alike, I think that the emotion for some would be excitable. I have no doubt that there is the odd individual skulking around here with his SLR, zooming in on our breasts and behinds and compiling his own private porn collection.

The thought of this makes me smile.

Call me warped, but it's fucking wonderful to feel so free! At the World Bodypainting Festival (Portschach, Austria) the lines of propriety are blurred and liberties are encouraged. I am me, you are you and we decide who we are, not “society”. It's nice to not take life so seriously.

But I digress, I'm naked, and that's the part that you're interested in.

My first day sees me paired with an artist named Marta Gejdosova and her assistant husband Miro (I like that concept!) from Slovakia. It is her debut to the World awards too, and I instantly feel comfort in the blind leading the blind. The day begins sunny and temperate at 10:00, but quickly declines to cloudy and arctic, particularly when you are wearing next to nothing for several hours. By the time “brushes down” is called and we visit the judges and pose for the media, it is 18:00 and it's bucketing down. My resilience for cold reached new depths during this weekend!

After all the official stuff is completed I make my way along with the other models to the main stage to perform (jiggle) for the audience. Day concludes at approximately 21:30, and though I am tired, I meet up with my Couchsurfer host, Kathrin, for some beers and the neon show. Now THIS was spectacular! Fluoro colours burst from the stage in very well planned acts including dance routines, hula hoops, ribbon twirling and pole dancing. The pole dancing act captivated me entirely in it's creativity and elegance, and I have since been contemplating classes... although I'm not sure that I will ever be flexible enough to pull off what this woman accomplished!

In bed by 2am and up five hours later to do it all again.

Miro, Marta and Me

An artist at work

Madonna and child

Day 1

Neon was difficult to capture, but you get an idea.

Over the next two days I modelled in the Fashion Show as Lucifer's wife (this was FUN), and acted as a promotional model for a couple of companies. This was, by far, the most successful campaign I have ever been involved in. It's amazing how people just love to take a flyer from a prettily painted girl... I was fortunate enough to have the wonderfully talented and interesting Wolf (Wolf's Bodymagic- check out his facebook page!) as my artist for the last two days, and I certainly hope to model for him again in future. Any friends in Aus interested, he may be headed to Melbourne later this year...

Lucifer and Wife

Promo girl, Day 2

Me and my creator, Day 3

While the majority of my trip was work, there was still time for play, and my wonderful new friend Kaddi (Kathrin, who I couchsurfed with) made this happen for me. After the festival closed on the second night, we headed out to a bar nearby with a bunch of her friends to get a little more blind. Ever heard of an “Infusion”? Take a shot glass of lime juice (fresh is best), combine it in your mouth with a sachet of sugar (that's one teaspoon if you don't have a packet), hold it while you add a shot of vodka and shake it all around vigorously in your mouth. Knock it back with a growl as your head spins on your neck. I LOVE this. I'm bringing Infusion to Australia and making it big.

My time in Carinthia, though short, was wonderful. The countryside is perfect for hiking and the lakes are stunning. And the people! Oh, how I adore Carinthians- they are the friendliest of all the people I have met thus far. Everyone is smiling, greeting you in the street and they genuinely seem to enjoy life. There is a Carinthian proverb that sums them up nicely-

“ You can gladly settle where people sing, as angry people don't know any songs.”

I'm coming back.

Stefan, Kaddi and I

The final hours of my final day at WBF I spent circulating through the crowds like one of Picasso's paintings come to life. Shaggy was playing on the main stage and I had no inhibitions about dancing in this state. In fact, I found the entire body painting experience to be extraordinarily liberating. Never before had I walked around in public, starkers, and not cared.

From the moment that I first stripped down and bared my white, imperfect body to the world, the healing process had begun. All those years of hating on myself... wishing I was tanner, had bigger boobs, had less moles... seemed to fall away the longer I stood there. I began to embrace myself for who I am, and love my body for all it enables me to do every single day.

If I could look at the other models, at each and every woman in their abundance of different shapes and sizes, and admire how divinely beautiful they all looked, then by that logic, had I seen myself would I not have thought I was beautiful too?

Yes, this experience delivered far beyond fun and flirtation with the risque. This experience delivered a piece of myself that I had been missing for most of my life.

As this trip sails along, I am finding parts of buried treasure that I never imagined to covet. From this point forth, I deem myself a pirate on the tumultuous seas of life, and I will fight fight fight for what is mine and never relinquish! Arrrrr!!!

WBF on Lake Worthersee, Portschach, Austria