Historias Na Pele - Stories on the Skin

Bodypainting has power as a source of healing and empowerment. Working on the Historias Na Pele project with Agencia Terrua, Brazil, was an incredible experience for all involved. 

Historias Na Pele is Portugese for stories on the skin. The project focused on six cancer warriors the women featured and their stories of how they fought through the battle with breast cancer. Each participant is currently in remission and had varying experiences including mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and the scars it leaves. 

Capturing each story began was a long process, and began with much discussion with the subjects. Each woman spent time being in discussion with a psychologist and then with a writer to help them safely verbalise their feelings and experiences. Next came my job, 

working with them and divining how I could turn those feelings, their raw expressions they had shared into art they could inhabit. With the assistance of a translator we used visual cues in the form of fabrics, paints, crystals, photographs, and totems they connected with that they had brought to discuss. We used images, colours, patterns and symbols to connect those experiences and how they visualised them. The journey took longer for many that the actual painting. The Japanese art of Kintsugi captured our imaginations and gold featured prominently in many of the designs as a representation of strength. Many of our participants wanted to highlight their scars and celebrate them. For many the project gave them an outlet to explore and celebrate their bodies. 

The project was shot in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and all of the participants are Brazilian. I had an amazing team working with me on the project translating and helping me to connect with them.  

Each day on this project was filled with tears and laughter, even through language barriers we all bonded and I think created something which gives a glimpse into each woman’s psyche. I was excited to hear last week that the project has won an Award in Brazil, Colonistas 2018. 

These images picture by Bruno Fioravanti is from the book created to accompany the project.

I hope these stories continue to inspire women fighting cancer not just in Brazil but across the world. 

#historiasnapele #breastcancer #breastcancerwarrior #warriorwoman #cancerwarrior #breastcancerawareness #octobrerose #pink #pinkoctober #pinkforbreastcancer #arttherapy #empowerment #empoweredwomen #altadiagnosticos #bodypainter #bodypainting #bodypainted

Skin Wars and Skin Wars Fresh Paint are now available on Netflix

Skin Wars and Skin Wars Fresh Paint are now available on Netflix

Mat Gleason, Emma Cammack and RuPaul Charles in Skin Wars Fresh Paint.

All three seasons of Skin Wars and all of the Skin Wars Fresh Paint episodes are available to stream on Netflix outside the USA so Skin Wars Fans around the world will now be able to see the show on demand. 

The show is hosted by RuPaul and features artists who are top of their field in different art mediums who try bodypainting for the first time in this knock out contest to win $10,000 each episode. With mentorship by the stars of the main Skin Wars show and with myself and Mat Gleason as judges. 

Skin Wars Fresh Paint Street, winner is revealed.

Pregnancy Bodypainting Collaboration

Photo: Erin White, Bodypainter: Emma Cammack, Model: Morgan Dodds

Sometimes personal collaborations create something beautiful. A few weeks ago I painted my pregnant friend, Morgan, who is due any day now. We discussed painting her growing bump and a plan developed. We wanted to paint something that represented a mother's love. "Being pregnant with our first child has been nothing but a sheer blessing. My husband and I waited 5 years of being married, while being stationed in Germany for 4 of those years with exploring the world together. We were ready for the next step in our lives." This is her first, much anticipated baby and Morgan is recording her pregnancy journey through photography and film. She is a Make-Up Artist and Cosmetologist and is fascinated with body art. We had met up a few times and discussed Bodypainting and all things Skin Wars. "I had met Emma a few times, and followed her on Facebook, as many of you know she's a judge off Skin Wars, and international body painter. I had uploaded a few pictures of my belly where Emma offered to paint my tummy. This turned into a beautiful collaboration between Emma Cammack, Tiffany Hudson, Erin White, and myself." Morgan chose elephants, so I painted an elephant calf holding it's mother's trunk onto her belly to represent her bond with her soon to be born little boy and to compliment the colours Morgan and her husband have chosen for their nursery. 

Bodypainting is not just for size 0 models. It is a way to own and celebrate your body in all it's majesty. Celebrating your body and creating art with it is empowering. Pregnancy in particular is a beautiful time in a woman's life. I love the fact that Morgan overcame her initial nervousness and trusted the team to create something to celebrate her pregnancy. Bodies are beautiful. Women too often worry about feeling too fat, or bloated or ugly in pregnancy, when in reality they are beautiful. Watching the behind the scenes video and seeing the genuine smiles and beauty in Morgan's face you can see how empowered the experience made her. 

Photo: Erin White, Bodypainter: Emma Cammack, Model: Morgan Dodds

It was wonderful to collaborate with some other local creatives who specialise in working with mothers and infants, something that was important to Morgan, "While working as a make up artist in the local military community I've had the best of times meeting the best of the best photographers, and extreme talent in the local area. Once I had confirmed I was pregnant I messaged Tiffany right away to film my birthing video. I have worked with her before for my business commercial and instantly fell in love with her work." Tiffany's business Tiffany Hudson Films specialises in Birth Videos, documenting the journey. 

Behind the Scenes. Photo: Erin White, Model: Morgan Dodds, Bodypainter: Emma Cammack

Our photographer Erin White works creates beautiful Maternity and newborn photography in her Baltimore Studio. Erin's work with Breast feeding Mothers nursing in nature, "Women in the Wild" went viral last year and she had worked with Morgan and developed a rapport. "I had met Erin a few years back, where I was her personal makeup artist for her photography business. This turned out so beautiful, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of ladies to help me and my son remember such a beautiful time in my life." Erin worked with Morgan and made her feel beautiful, comfortable and relaxed. 

Photo: Erin White, Bodypainter: Emma Cammack, Model: Morgan Dodds

The images and BTS video from the day are gorgeous. I love seeing process images and film and seeing art in development. What is lovely in this video is seeing the response from both Morgan and her baby to being painted. Some of the special moments from the shoot that Tiffany captured; like the baby move and respond to the brush stroked from inside the womb, kicking the brush and Morgan's belly moving with the brushstrokes and seeing the beautiful smile on Morgan's face that really shows how gorgeous she felt in the paint. Beautiful moments captured on film. Scroll to the bottom of this post to view it. 

Photo: Erin White, Bodypainter: Emma Cammack, Model: Morgan Dodds

Moments like this are meaningful for new mothers and can help remember the beauty and elegance of pregnancy. Pregnant women have an amazing aura and glow about them, I feel like Morgan was so serene, beautiful and empowered during this shoot. "Often times when a woman gets pregnant we don't always feel that confident as things are quickly changing inside, and on the outside. I never felt un beautiful, in fact after this day I felt the best I think I had ever felt in my pregnancy." I hope that together we have created memories she can cherish forever, even when this moment in her life is a distant memory. Don't forget to check out the behind the scenes video at the bottom of the post by Tiffany Hudson Films, it really captures the essence of being painted beautifully. 




The creative team on this project are: 

Photography by Erin White,  www.erinwhitephotography.com

Behind the Scenes Footage by Tiffany Hudson, www.tiffanyhudsonfilms.com

Bodypainting by Emma Cammack, www.emmacammack.com

Model and Make-Up Artist, Morgan Dodds, www.instagram.com/makeupbymorgandodds/

Bodypainting BTS from tiffany hudson on Vimeo.

Skin Wars Fresh Paint is now available on Hulu in the USA

Skin Wars Fresh Paint is now available on Hulu. 

Lots of Skin Wars fans have asked me where to see the show. Here is some news for those of you in America. Skin Wars Fresh Paint is now available from Hulu streaming service in the USA. You can check out the full season with your Hulu subscription. 

The show is hosted by the amazing RuPaul and is Skin Wars with a twist, a spin off show from the main Skin Wars Competition. In Skin Wars, Fresh Paint we invite experienced artists from different art mediums to try bodypaint for the first time and tackle some difficult bodypaint challenges.  

  

There are lots of appearances from the stars of Skin Wars seasons one, two and three as mentors, helping the new artists competing to win $10,000 each episode. 

Myself and Mat Gleason lead up the judge's panel to choose the Skin Wars Fresh Paint Champion each week. 

Check the show out and let me know if you enjoy it. 

Skin Wars is now on Netflix

Fans of Skin Wars, the show is now available and currently trending on Netflix in the USA. Don't forget to look out for me as a guest judge, where I get to stand next to one of the most gorgeous women on the planet, Rebecca Romijin and to hang out with the amazing Ru Paul.

For those of you who are new fans of the show you can also catch Instagram Queen Kandee Johnson in the behind the scenes You Tube Show about Skin Wars called "The Naked Truth". Where Kandee finds out the behind the scenes scoop.

I loved working on Skin Wars making this amazing sequence for the opening credits. Love this cute little gif from it!!

No news on when and if it will be available in other regions yet. Keep your fingers crossed! 

Enjoy the show and let me know what you think!

Skin Wars Fresh Paint Season Premiere

Check out the trailer for the season premiere of Skin Wars Fresh Paint on GSN. The season will begin mid June. Look out for me in the trailer. 

Short Film of The Coalescence of Creation Installation Art from WBF

We created a film of my Award Winning Installation at the World Bodypainting Festival. Thank you to Josh Lim and The team at WBF for making this, it captures the experience beautifully. 

The Coalescence of Creation is an Installation compiled of Fibre Art and Body Art. A yarn Bomb created by 87 Fibre Artists from all over the world, inhabited by a rainbow of bodypainted dancers weaving human yarn in interconnectivity. The work by Emma Cammack, won the Special Award for Installation Art at the World Bodypainting Festival 2016, in Carinthia, Austria. 

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...

SKIN WARS is going Global!!!

I was commissioned to create piece for the opening titles of the show SKIN WARS and was a Guest Judge last year on Season 1. Skin Wars is a reality TV Knock out competition for Bodypainters, featuring Rebecca Romijin, Ru Paul, Craig Tracy and Robin Slonina. So many people have asked if it will be shown in the UK or Europe. Well here it comes... UK and European channels buy Skin Wars Show.  

Tru TV in the UK as well as other European Channels have bought the rights to show it. So, coming soon to a Screen Near YOU!!!

My camouflage bodypainting for the Skin Wars opening titles, concept by Jill Goularte. 

For those of you who have not heard about it yet, Skin Wars is a US Reality TV Show created by Jill Goularte and Michael Levitt at Michael Levitt Production for GSN. It features 10 Bodypainters in a last man standing elimination contest for $100,000. In the US they are currently showing season 2 and casting for season 3. So lots of paint and drama to follow. http://skinwars.gsntv.com/

Pinterest Board for The Coalescence of Creation Installation

We have received so many amazing images from visitors to The Coalescence of Creation Installation at the World Bodypainting Festival that we have created a Pinterest Board to share images from it. Please add any images you may have or simply view more fabulous pictures there. Many more will be added over the next few days.
Follow Emma's board Coalescence of Creation - Body Art Yarn Bomb at World Bodypainting Festival 2015 on Pinterest.