My name is Lawren Alice and I am a professional body painter. My canvas is the living, breathing human body and the paints that I use are a water-based cake makeup specifically designed for safe use on the skin. Body painting, in contrast to traditional acrylic or oil painting, has to be done as fast as possible - painted with both grace and speed without compromising quality. Body painting doesn’t allow me the luxury to set my work down for extended periods of time and come back to it at a later date like oil or acrylic painters are allowed. My time limitations weigh on the shoulders of my canvas (quite literally) and because time is of the essence, every stroke and line I paint is applied with confidence and intention. What most people don’t understand when viewing body art is that they’re not taking into consideration all of the handicaps that are paired with it. Aside from the fact that my canvas is a moving, living thing I need to make sure is hydrated, rested and happy, I also need to make sure that my work is photographed before it’s all washed away at the end of the day. Body painting, in contrast to other traditional painting, is a whole different beast and due to it’s short lived shelf life, must be photographed to record its extremely temporary existence. Most of my work has been photographed by my long-time friend and owner of Gallery ML, Noah Musher. Together we work as a team where his role as a photographer is absolutely necessary in preserving my work. Once the body painting image has been shot, the final edited piece then goes to print where it’s made into limited edition signed giclee prints stretched onto canvas. 

Most of the fine art body painting images I produce have been planned out to be painted specifically for one shot. A good example of this is my Wing Series, where I deliberately disguise the human figure under a kaleidoscoped pattern of monarch butterfly wings but leave just enough hint of a human element for the viewer to at first get lost in the image and then, after a long enough stare, realize the whole of what they’re looking at. I really enjoy square format images and hiding the body within the frame; cropping it so that the painting is stretched from edge to edge. When painting my pieces I always take into consideration the type of people I’d want to sell my art to. I make sure to go down the opposite path of stereotypical body painting and stay away from overly obvious nudity that could be misinterpreted as sexual. It is my personal mission as a body painter to prove to the general public that body painting doesn’t have to be all breasts and butts. It can and should be a respected medium of art worthy of display in a fine art gallery setting. 

While my fine art body painting images can be seen on display at Gallery ML in Philly (www.galleryml.com), more of my work can be seen on Season 3 of TruTV’s Full Throttle Saloon (airing Nov. 30th at 9pm), featured in the popular international face & body art magazine Illusion (Summer Issue 2011), online face & body art magazine BrushStrokes and in publications The Norwich Bulletin (CT), Las Vegas Weekly (NV), The Gleaner (Jamaica), Philadelphia Weekly (PA), The Dallas Observer (TX) and coming soon, an internationally distributed hardcover coffee table book entitled The Fine Art of Body Painting (PixelPerfect Productions). Though starting in the body painting world just three short years ago, my passion, perseverance and unique style have led me to work with clients such as Redbull, Absolut Vodka, Jesse James’ American Outlaw Beer, Philly2night.com, the island of Bonaire’s Board of Tourism, Bodypainting X, Hedonism II, The Heavyweight Factory, Cirque USA, The Go-Go World Tour, Blu Bay Models and Playboy’s Leather & Lace. 

Always ready and up for the next big challenge I welcome any opportunity that comes my way and will always make it my goal to produce quality body painting that's a step above the rest!

For more examples of my work visit www.lawrenalice.com or keep up with my adventures at www.facebook.com/lawrenalice

Visual Artist of the Year Nominees

   Jillian Frederick  |  Hollywood

   Selena Fara  |  Los Angeles

   Matt Garber  |  Santa Monica

  Tommy Orosco  |  Orange County

   Antoine Saba  |  Santa Ana

   Daniel Galindo  |  Pomona/Riverside

   VIZ  |  San Diego

   Nikki Bonney  |  San Francisco

   Gallery KR  |  Portland

   Nate Knodel  |  Seattle

   Lauren E. Anthony  |  Denver

   Fatima Zahra  |  Minneapolis

   Victoria Claus  |  Chicago

  Matthew Reid   |  New York

   Lawren Alice  |  Philadelphia

   Ryan Severance  |  Boston

   Lisa Gardiner  |  Nashville

   Abel Garcia  |  Austin

   Joshua Murphy  |  Phoenix

   Mitz  |  Las Vegas

Photographer of the Year Nominees

   Greg Reeves  |  Hollywood

   Vincent Sandoval  |  Los Angeles

   CAPS  |  Santa Monica

   Sammy B.  |  Orange County

   Jessica Bowland  |  Santa Ana

   Lawrence Balbuena  |  Pomona/Riverside

   Sean Diaz  |  San Diego

   Amanda Neep   |  San Francisco

   Lauren Nicole Berichon   |  Portland

   Jeff Blucher  |  Seattle

   Jeff Wilson  |  Denver

   Drew Carlson  |  Minneapolis

   Kamila Gornia  |  Chicago

   L Photography   |   New York

   Breanne Furlong  |  Philadelphia

   CRA!G Montague  |  Boston

   Lauren Athalia Photography  |  Nashville

   Mixed Marshall Arts  |  Austin

   Tage Michael Photography  |  Phoenix  

   Les Post  |  Las Vegas

Jeff Blucher was born in Upstate New York’s Saratoga Springs, and has lived in Southern California for several years, but now finds himself at home in Seattle, Washington.  Primarily self-taught, Jeff continues to define his artist expression through his own balance of calculation and experimentation. He photographs the world around him with intention, creating images with meaning, beauty, and thought behind them. 

For more of Jeff's work, go to www.jeffblucher.com.