By Cathy Aronson

If you asked Carmel McCormick to reveal her legs you would more than likely find the beginnings of a strange creature painted on them. This month her legs have been the practice canvas for a komodo dragon and an elephant - which eventually became her Supreme Award winning entry at this year's NZ Body Art Awards.

Just as Carmel uses her body art to transform people into their wildest dreams, Carmel's wildest dreams transformed her life 10 years ago when she gave up nursing to follow her passion for face painting.

"It feels like yesterday. I started doing face painting at kids parties and it snow balled into this business. I still can't believe I am doing what I love. I pinch myself every day.

"It's great to win these award, but even if I had never won, I've won the passion to create and be free and for me that the most satisfying and rewarding thing."By Cathy Aronson

If you asked Carmel McCormick to reveal her legs you would more than likely find the beginnings of a strange creature painted on them. This month her legs have been the practice canvas for a komodo dragon and an elephant - which eventually became her Supreme Award winning entry at this year's NZ Body Art Awards.

Just as Carmel uses her body art to transform people into their wildest dreams, Carmel's wildest dreams transformed her life 10 years ago when she gave up nursing to follow her passion for face painting.

"It feels like yesterday. I started doing face painting at kids parties and it snow balled into this business. I still can't believe I am doing what I love. I pinch myself every day.

"It's great to win these award, but even if I had never won, I've won the passion to create and be free and for me that the most satisfying and rewarding thing."Carmel now has a busy career as a body, face and mural painter working at a variety of events including kids parties, corporate and private functions and awards evenings.

She has painted everything from a baby to a 90-year-old lady and especially looks forward to painting the Auckland Zoo elephants Kashin and Burma for their birthdays. She uses paint rollers and works at '100 miles per hour' as she only has 45 minutes to complete each elephant.

"It was a challenge at first but I decided if I can do an elephant I can do anyone."

The elephants became the inspiration for one of her entries in this year's jungle themed Body Art Awards. She intimately knew the details of an elephants skin and used model JP's arms and elbows as the elephant ears, which he flapped as he walked.

Levi Holley, the model for her other winning entry of a Komodo Dragon, says the elephant ears are a good example of how Carmel "always thinks right out of the box".

"She doesn't see art as stationary, she sees it moving in her own mind. She's a real innovator."

Levi has been a 'body' for Carmel before, as a cheetah, but said his komodo dragon performance was the most challenging and rewarding.

He had to crawl and twist like he was on his stomach, without letting his body (and art work) touch the ground, which required being in a constant state of push ups, often a one arm push up. And despite having a training regime including 200 push-ups to keep up appearances for his male reviews and film and TV work (including Alt TV naked news weather man), Levi felt the burn this time.

His arms were on fire within the first minute of his first performance and he had to keep up the energy and character as he was called out to scurry across the stage at least five times for the different categories, speeches and awards - including winning the Best Performance Award. An honour, he says, considering the 'amazing performances' from the other models including professional dancers. He said his professional career helped him pull off his performance as he felt comfortable in his skin and didn't think twice that he was only wearing a g-string under his painted costume.

He worked the crowd by flashing his lizard contact lenses and blue tongue at the most timid looking person at each table. The rest of the audience were out of their seats clapping.

"I couldn't believe it, I kept on looking behind me thinking something was wrong. It's the best crowd response I've ever had."

Carmel says the models are an essential part of the work. She said Levi was a professional who wanted every detail of his performance to be perfect.

"People forget how important the models are. If your model is not comfortable, warm, has had food and sleep then you might as well kiss your chances of winning goodbye."

Carmel said the models were one of the reasons she wanted to win, after lowering her expectations with only a month to prepare because of a demanding workload. She also didn't know if she could top last year's Supreme Award winning entry.

She said the support of her family helped her get through. Her two sons Alex and Kevin help with the painting and business and her husband Wayne even let her practice the komodo dragon on his back. It was her husband's encouragement that originally helped her embrace her new career, and she's never looked back since.

"If you have a talent and a passion then work on it and the rest will come, because you need passion for drive and drive will lead to success."

NZ Body Art Awards founder and director Mem Bourke says the awards provide a platform for artists to showcase their work and connect with the arts sector.

"This creative environment needs to be feed and kept alive and stimulated. People can become complacent and dormant. They need a reason to get their creativity flowing again and experience the freedom that comes with it. I get a real pleasure out of seeing people seeing themselves and achieving their goals."

She says the awards and workshops help the artists share knowledge and learn techniques, which doesn't always happen in New Zealand's small industry. The event also provides a platform for artists to seek employment in the film and theatre industries, with head judge Richard Taylor often scouting for talent for Weta Workshop.

Richard Taylor says the competition promotes make-up artists from around New Zealand, enabling them to showcase their talent and assisting in their endeavours to succeed in the industry.

"Mem has a fantastic rapport with local artists and is deeply passionate about the art form and that comes through making the event the fantastic event that it is," says Taylor.

Mem's future plans include creating regional schools competitions to nurture the next generation of body artists.

For now she is working on the Art Venture programme, preparing her own work for the world body painting festivals in Austria and Korea and is already planning New Zealand's fourth annual Body Art Awards 'Fantasia Asia' next year on May 16.

Photo: By Gino Demeer

Contact Carmel: at carmelsfabart@xtra.co.nz

Related story: NZ Body Art Awards winners 2008