Tina Schultz never expected a trip to the Armstrong Fair with her sister in law Sarah and her nieces and nephews to trigger her entrance into the world of body painting.
“I made a spontaneous move from Calgary to be closer to my brother and his family,” Shultz says. “That first summer we went to the fair and of course the kids want to get their faces painted. After the kids were finished Sarah said I was artistic and suggested I try face painting.”
Shultz is artistic, having experimented with different mediums in the past. “As a teenager I worked with pencil sketching and didn't really find any gratification out of drawing on paper,” she says.
In an effort to find an artistic medium that would stick, she tried her hand at both tattoo and airbrushing. “I was young and didn’t have the motivation to tattoo. Airbrushing didn't last long either, I felt no real passion to paint helmets and other objects.”
When Sarah suggested she try facepainting, Schultz couldn’t shrug off the idea. Having never worked with water-based paints before but ready for the challenge, she started watching YouTube videos about body and face painting. Next she set about finding the right kind of paints.
“I made sure the paints I was purchasing were hypoallergenic, vegan and non toxic,” she explains. “I was going to be putting this stuff on kids faces and had to make sure nothing would hurt their skin. The paints are very expensive but worth every penny.”
Schultz’s first few attempts were on herself. “Man they were bad,” she laughs. It’s been two years since then and her work now is detailed and eye catching.
“It's all been self-taught, hours of gruelling hours of painting my face,” she says. Her work is unique. “Who wants boring anyway! I truly let my brush do the talking. I paint what I'm feeling at that second,” she says.
October is the busiest month of the year for Shultz. In addition to working two jobs, this is her second Halloween doing the 31 Days of Halloween challenge. Every day of the month, in a process that takes between four and seven hours not including photo’s or clean up, Shultz is creating a new work.
“Each year my creativity enhances and the quality improves. Practise makes perfect!” she says. “The ideas are endless and my creative side loves the flexibility that the water based paints gives me to express myself at that given moment.
Her Halloween work is vivid and rich and detail, featuring a variety of creatures inspired by fantasy, science fiction and horror. “The worst part about body painting is having to wash it off right after I paint it,” she adds.
Schultz has plans to pursue her body painting career. “I would love to apply for the TV series Skin Wars in the next year or two and I’m interested in the film
industry,” she says.
She is grateful for the life she is leading in Revelstoke. “I truly owe this stage in my life to Sarah. She has helped me to discover my true passion in life and I am forever grateful for her. She is one of my biggest fans and supporters. It's truly amazing how life works, everything does happen for a reason. It's all about trusting the timing of your life and knowing you are exactly where you need to be.”
Check out Schultz’s work on her Instagram account @tinaschultz_
