I grew up in Sacramento California on a pig farm. Some of my earliest memories is sitting next to my mother while she painted acrylic landscapes. I can still smell the paints and canvases if I close my eyes.
Art has always been part of my life. From my Great grandfather, my grandmother, my mothers and now my daughter. we all have a love of art.
How I started body painting
Body painting started as a dare. I remember my roommate at the time was obsessed with a model he found on this new thing called the internet. One of her images she was body painted by an artist Leroy Roper. Looking at his website I was inspired and said out loud .. I think I can do that… and my roommate said “Prove it”
So I convinced my girlfriend at the time to model for me at a “Body painting party” where I painted her in front of everyone. I was a little intimidated as I had no idea what I was doing.
The results was “Bubbles” my first attempt at body painting.
Next thing I know I am painting every month
Over time I started to have new ideas for more complex paintings. At first I was hard to find models because of the nature of the work, but after the first few paintings I discovered the secret to finding body painting models. You treat them with respect and the word gets out.
- I don’t date my models
- My models are treated like royalty while in my studio
- Models are not commodities they are people
- If a model is not feeling amazing during this process of being painted everything stops without question.
- I welcome, husbands, wives, best friends etc to be there while the body painting is taking place.
Then I met her
There are moments that define your life. While some people think these are moments that can be planned. Mine happened on a weekend when nothing was planned and she actually knocked on my door.
So I had a model interview scheduled. I was expecting that it was going to be one of those meet and greet kind of days. What I was not expecting was that she called and canceled and said she was going to send her friend in stead. Either way I was happy to have some one in the studio while I painted my next background.
The person who knocked on my door I had no idea would be the most important person in my life. Now it is important to understand this story that I do not date my models.
So here I am talking with this lovely woman who seemed to be flirting with me. The more we talked the more I enjoyed talking to her. I must have painted the same flower over and over five times as I was enjoying the contestation.
“So did you want to get out of her and go for a walk ? ”
Knowing that I do not date my models she did not model for me until after we had been dating for a few months. We married 6 months later.
We Moved to Australia
A few years after we married we moved to Sydney with my job at Apple. We now live in Lithgow opened MacMason Training where we do phone and MacBook repairs