Art & Design

An emerging artist wins Art and Design course with Body Art entry

A last minute entrant who was completely new to body painting took out the prize for Best Emerging Artist at the New Zealand Body Art Festival in Taupo on Saturday, February 20, 2010.

Taupo’s Tracy Pearson said she was surprised to win, especially since she only entered at the last minute after her friend Raewyn Booth pulled out.

“Raewyn decided on the Thursday night not to enter and she wanted me to do it,” Tracy said. That gave Tracy less than 24 hours to plan her design, which she said was “not too bad” because Raewyn already had some good ideas based on a sea urchin theme using paua shell designs, which she said is “the rainbow of the sea.”

But Tracy faced a major challenge when, half an hour after the competition began, she found out that the design had to reflect a Maori myth or legend, to fit the theme of the competition.

“I didn’t know that was the theme, and I only had six hours to do the artwork, so I had to get some help,” she said. She said her friend Anita Bennett arrived just in time to help.

Anita said she thought she had just come to take some photos. “But I ended up there from 11 till 6 o’clock that night,” she said. But she said it was a fantastic day. Anita helped by researching Maori myths and legends at the library.

“She found out the Maori mythology of the sea urchin,” Tracy said. So Tracy changed her design to reflect the story of Uenuku and the sea goddess. “I wanted to use paua designs and bubbles to represent the sea,” she said. The flames and fiery wig were added to represent the sun, she said, because in the legend the sunlight causes the sea urchin to burn.

Tracy said the win was a team effort, and she could not have done it without the help of Raewyn, Anita and her body art model Jeanette MacIntosh.

Tracy’s only previous body painting experience was when she helped out at a body art workshop prior to the festival, where she picked up some of the basic skills.

A painter decorator by trade, Tracy said she would love to pursue a more creative career. She said she has always had an artistic flair. “I paint canvases and do a bit of photography, and I like most creative pursuits,” she said.

The prize Tracy took home was a scholarship to the value of $527 for an art and design course of her choice at Waiariki Institute of Technology. Tracy has chosen to do printmaking, which she hopes is the first step towards her new career.

Taima Simon - Waiariki Journalism Student