The wall-flowers..

This is another photo I found the other night.  This was a paint we did for Te Papa’s 10th anniversary – Te Papa is Wellington’s Museum.  Sian and I were painted ‘into’ the wall at the marae at the museum.  It was probably the most bizarre paint I’ve done as I have to be honest you feel like a dork leaning against a wall going ‘I’m invisible!’  It was also the longest paint and took close to 5 hours (may have been longer… can’t exactly remember).  It was surprisingly hard on us, the models, because you really did have to stay still for most that time and for someone with naturally low blood pressure I had a few woozy moments *lol*.  The best part of the day was when we were finally done and a concert was about to begin so people began to come in.  Most looked amused and smiled at us then a couple came and stood close but the wife pointedly ignored us.  Sian and I exchanged a glance and inwardly shrugged it off (no moving allowed ;p).  The funny thing with bodypainting is that if anyone is going to have an issue with it, it’s always women.  Men are hilarious about it as they either cast sneaky sideway glances and blush like little boys when you catch them, or, they march up to you while maintaining STRONG eye contact and talk to you as though you are deaf… Why being semi-clothed makes me hard of hearing is completely beyond me *grin*


Anyway!  The husband of the couple had given us an amused glance but the wife continued to ignore us.  I just continued to observe her (she was directly in front of me – I couldn’t turn my head) when I noticed her stiffen through the shoulders.  Weird, I thought.  Then she did that slow head turn, like in a horror movie when the victim clicks that there’s something beside her and she met my eyes.
Then shrieked!
The whole room erupted into laughter (not Siany and me, we kept our game faces on!!) as everyone realised she hadn’t been disapproving, she just hadn’t realised she was standing right next to a painted person.  It certainly made the long strenuous paint feel worthwhile *grin*