Throw back Thursday - Blue Peter Guest Appearance.

I have been working on updating my website recently and while I was searching for videos to include I found this blast from the past clip from my appearance on Blue Peter while browsing youtube and it was too good not to share. (scroll down for clip) Back in 2004 I was invited to be a guest on legendary British Childrens TV Show "Blue Peter". I had watched Blue Peter since I was a small child, and was excited to be on the show and to see how the show was filmed. 

I was painting one of the Blue Peter presenters, Gethin Jones, to vanish into the studio set, featuring the famous ship. Camouflage bodypainting is quite complicated and takes a lot of technical skill. It is very difficult to move models out of position and get them back perfectly to vanish. Normally when you paint models to blend into a background you paint them and them shoot the film or photo shoot immediately, but this was a live show, and the schedule meant it was not going o be able to happen that way. Gethin was only available to be painted for 3 and a half hours in the morning and had a series of meetings and rehearsals to go to during the day and the show went out live at 6.30pm. Clearly it was time to get creative. 

The majority of traditional body paints would simply rub off or be degenerated over time under Gethin's clothes when we went to his meetings. There was a minuscule amount of time for retouches. In the time since 2004 there are many many new professional bodypaint products on the market which would have the durability needed for this task, but back then there was less choice. I would not consider using products not meant for use on skin (even though there may have been some out there that would solve the problem) so in the end after lots of trials of products on my own arms and legs I used Temptu's Dura line painted both with an airbrush and by hand. The retouch time was used to paint Gethin's face with water based make-up. I used Wolfe FX for it's durability and strong pigmented colours. I also used Wolfe for some touch ups on the body here and there to make the design really pop. 

Although this may not be the most detailed camouflage bodypaint I have done, with the limitations on time and the structure of the day, it was one of the most difficult. Working on a Live TV show like Blue Peter was very exhilarating. No chance for retakes, or retouches, or mistakes. I Loved the fact that the BBC were happy to show bodypainting on a children's TV show as something interesting that children may be interested in learning about or learning how to do. I wrote a piece for the CBBC website about Facepainting and how to learn how to do it safely and well as a segway for children and parents interested in becoming involved in face and body art. They also showed lots of stills of my work in my intro on the show with body paintings of nude and near nude people without so much as a blink. It is still refreshing to see this great attitude to bodypaint not as a sexualised thing, but as a creative wonder. 

Blue Peter presenters Konnie Huq, Gethin Jones and Bodypainter Emma Cammack

Anyone reading from the UK will know Blue Peter, It has run on the BBC since 1958 and is the longest running children's TV show in the world. As a child I dreamed of winning a Blue Peter Badge and entered contests sending in pictures of my art over the years to do so but was never successful. One of the things I had not realised when I agreed to be on the show was that as a guest I would be presented with my own Blue Peter badge. So at the age of 30 I earned my Blue Peter badge and had my art featured on the show, which was the culmination of a childhood dream. I still have my badge proudly displayed in my studio.

The clip below shows part of the feature on the show showing time lapse film of myself and my assistant Tara painting Gethin while I am interviewed by Konnie Huq. 

Skin Wars Fresh Paint Announcement

GSN Have just announced a Skin Wars spin off show called Skin Wars Fresh Paint. The show will be hosted by RuPaul, and features my self and Mat Gleason as judges. Check out the GSN Press release below. 

Skin Wars Fresh Paint Press Release

SKIN WARS: FRESH PAINT is executive produced by Michael Levitt of Michael Levitt Productions (“Skin Wars,” “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List,” “Ask Oprah’s All Stars”), Jill Goularte, Kate Kenny and RuPaul Charles.  

Skin Wars now on HULU

You can watch Season 1 and 2 of Skin Wars now on HULU. Fantastic news as now I can watch the rest of Season 2. Love the show and seeing all the amazing art being created. Look out for my Bodypainting in the opening credits and look out for me in Season one, Episode 2.

Here is my episode from Season 1 for those of you with a HULU subscription

New trailer for UK Premiere of Skin Wars on Tru TV

This is the US Reality TV show I worked on in LA last year. Produced by Michael Levitt Productions for GSN. The show is hosted by X-Men's Rebecca Romijin, with Judges Ru Paul, Craig Tracy and Robin Slonina and a cast of 10 Bodypainters painting their hearts out for the $100,000 prize. 

Season 1 of the show is now getting it's premiere on UK TV on TruTV beginning 22nd July. I was a guest judge on Episode 2, and created the the brushes camouflage body paint for the opening credits. Look out for me at the end of this trailer released on TruTV's YouTube channel, and stay tuned for the show next week!

Skin Wars series 1 begins in Germany in August. Stayed tuned German friends!

Skin Wars starts on A&E in Germany in August. 

Stayed tuned folks!

 Skin Wars Series 1 on A&E in Germany.

Living Art America - Last few days to submit your work for the qualifying rounds.

If you were considering being part of the amazing event that is Living Art America then this is your last chance! They are accepting entries from interested artists for the next two days, this year in a new set up entries will go through a jury process, then a public vote to choose which artists will take the limited spaces at the event. Do not miss your chances to take part. The DEADLINE is in 2 days on 15th July. ALL competitors who meet the panel's criteria will be posted in our new public online voting gallery, so NO APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED after July 15th. 

I am honoured this year to be part of the qualifying round panel of experts for the submission process along with some amazing names from the bodypainting world. 

http://www.livingartamerica.com/qualifying-round-panel-of-experts

World Bodypainting Festival Official Installation Art Gallery

The World Bodypainting Festival has published a gallery with a selection of favourite images from the Installation Award.

Enjoy

Image: Agnieszka Glinska

http://gallery.wb-production.com/World-Bodypainting-Festival/WBF-2015/Festival-Main-Days/Best-of-Gallery-01/Installation-Art

Fabulous snippet from our Coalescence of Creation presentation at the World Bodypainting Festival

The wonderful Lars Hoog took this footage of our installation presentation and shared it on Facebook. More to follow as we have a short film in the works.

Thank you Lars for sharing!

Stories from The Coalescence of Creation: Save The Bees!!

The Coalescence of Creation is an Award Winning Body Art Yarn Bomb Installation Art Piece featured at the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria by Artist Emma Cammack. With Artists, Bodypainters and Models also featured in the presentation there were over 100 Artisans involved with making this extraordinary piece of team work happen, of that 100 over 85 were Fibre Artists creating beautiful handcrafted pieces to be a part of a crochet and knitted fantasy woodland on the banks of Worthersee. Each and every piece and every person that is part of the installation has a tale to tell of how they came to be there...

I am a passionate gardener and lover of nature. Part of wanting to create the crochet woodland wonderland that forms the backdrop to the Installation was my love of nature. I wanted to celebrate natures heroes, one of the biggest of which for me is the humble Bee! Bees are essential to keep food on our plates and for the circle of life to keep spinning. Too many bees have been dying, poisoned by our need to farm "more efficiently". Bees are vital and we work hard at home to provide an environment for them to thrive. I researched lots of images of wild bee hives and inspired by many images I saw decided to free style my own versions to hang in the woodland.

The Honeycomb hive was inspired by the crochet honeycomb image I found on Pinterest, and which I roughly approximated my own version of with double thread yarn and a huge crochet hook. 

 The Hanging wild bee hive was up cycled from a brown scarf found in a charity shop that was coiled and sewn into the hanging hive shape, with crochet bees sewn on. I am very happy with the results.

A wonderful surprise while we were building the installation was to find a nest of Mason Bees happily living underground within out installation. The entrance to their hive was just here on the ground next to the knitted bollard. If you look carefully in the picture you can see their hole at the right bottom of the bollard.

Save the bees poster resource.

There are many simple ways you can help bees in your own garden. Plant some of the plants on the poster, and avoid using chemicals which will harm them on your garden. We need the bees more than they need us.

Click here for more info from Friends of the Earth on helping Bees in your region.

Stories from the Coalescence of Creation: The Slug Sisters...

The Coalescence of Creation is an Award Winning Body Art Yarn Bomb Installation Art Piece featured at the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria by Artist Emma Cammack. With Artists, Bodypainters and Models also featured in the presentation there were over 100 Artisans involved with making this extraordinary piece of team work happen, of that 100 over 85 were Fibre Artists creating beautiful handcrafted pieces to be a part of a crochet and knitted fantasy woodland on the banks of Worthersee. Each and every piece and every person that is part of the installation has a tale to tell of how they came to be there...

The inspiration for some of the creatures who feature in Coalescence of Creation installation were from many many web searched for beautiful knitted and crochet items. When I searched around for inspirations for the installation there were some amazing images and inspirational images I found for all kinds of creatures, beetles, bugs and butterflies that I shared with my amazing pool of fibre artists. One of my favourites was an image of some knitted slugs. They looked slimy and fantastic. They were ugly things, and I knew they had to be featured somehow as we needed a balance between beauty and beast. No-one wanted to make them, I sadly (having only basic knitting skills and having only just learned to crochet I did not have the level of skill required, so while beautiful butterflies and bugs flooded in my ugly ducking slugs remained unmade. Months went by and every now and then I would look at the slug pictures and wish I knew how to knit well enough to make them. 

Luckily my Mum, Dee Cammack, stepped up and knitted the two fabulous slug sisters pictured below. They look particularly fabulous on the grass green twine we found in a skip from a house clearance which ended up in the installation too. 

So here they are, The Slug Sisters in all their slimy splendour! Thank you Mum! They are wonderful. 

Stories from The Coalescence of Creation: Mimi, a very special Monarch Butterfly.

At the end of last year my friend found a monarch butterfly with an injured wing on the sidewalk near his home in LA. Most people would have walked on by, but not this man. Artist David Gilmore and his partner took the butterfly under their wing and took her home, by the end of the day she had a name "Mimi" and began an artisan life as model, actress and muse. 

David's Facebook feed became filled with daily updates on Mimi's progress and as each day went on his friends all tuned in for the latest news and images of this special being, being nursed back to health. Mimi never regained flight, although she retained the ability to fly as David and his partner "flew" her around their home and garden on their hands. They treated her gently and with such love. 

Then the inspiration began and beautiful images of Mimi in conjunction with David's beautiful art began to emerge. She was inspirational. She touched us all. 

Then one day in late January David broke the news that Mimi had passed, her life cycle had ended. This tiny creature had moved me so much that from the other side of the world I cried, with my children who cried too. We mourned this ethereal being who had meant so much to us from so far away. It was then that I knew I would create a place in my installation to honour Mimi and her effect on us. I had to learn to crochet to do this, and it took many attempts to make a Mimi I was happy with. 

Crocheting Mimi on Santa Monica Beach

She was crocheted in many parts of the world, as it was important to me that she should have travelled and created in as many places as possible. I crocheted her in Germany, London, on a flight from Frankfurt to LA, on Santa Monica Beach, in Finland, in Belgium and The Netherlands, on set, off set, and all kind of other places in between. She was finally completed during the road trip to Austria and the World Bodypainting Festival.

The finished result.

Mimi was placed with great love in The Coalescence of Creation Installation as a symbol of hope eternal.

Life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly.

Here is to Mimi. 

"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies, fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die, I can fly my friends" Freddie Mercury. 

The Coalescence of Creation is an Award Winning Body Art Yarn Bomb Installation Art Piece featured at the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria by Artist Emma Cammack. With Artists, Bodypainters and Models also featured in the presentation there were over 100 Artisans involved with making this extraordinary piece of team work happen, of that 100 over 85 were Fibre Artists creating beautiful handcrafted pieces to be a part of a crochet and knitted fantasy woodland on the banks of Worthersee. Each and every piece and every person that is part of the installation has a tale to tell of how they came to be there...