Artist Turns Human Bodies into Living Canvases

A splendiferous day to you wherever you are... cyberspace or elsewhere. Mind the coffeepot as you spiral down for a mugful. Grab a virtual treat ot twain while you're here. You know I'm attracted to artistic endeavours, right? Well here's a pretty foxy artist!

There’s more to the animal portraits painted by Florida-based artist Shannon Holt than meets the eye. If you look carefully, you’ll notice the canvases are actually human bodies contorted into just the right position.

The expert body-painter spends between 6 and 12 hours instructing the models to adopt the right stance and painstakingly painting every little detail of the animal she brings to life through her art. 

After experimenting with various mediums, Holt decided the skin was the perfect medium to express her talent. “The body was the final surface I tried before I decided skin was the key to making my work successful,” she said. “I love it because it happened automatically and beautifully with no planning – it’s a perfect creative example of how cool body painting can be. It can transform into two different images with the repositioning of the model’s arms and hands.”

Remarkable. I suppose the artist would either start with an animal sketch and see how human shapes could be worked into it - or see a human shape and think about how it resembled an animal part. Either way, it's quite ingenious, don't'cha think?

See ya, eh!

Bob