PHOENIX — A makeup artist of 16 years, Allison Pynn’s daily work life went through some big changes because of the pandemic. Forced to stay home, she knew she had to come up with a way to stay sane.
“I’m not going to sit here and be depressed,” Pynn said. “Like, I’m going to embrace what I love to do. Art is always my go to; drawing, painting, all that and so I’m just going to do art on myself.”
With limited workspace at home, and a small mirror along with some paints available, she thought the easiest canvas would be her body.
“Literally sitting on my bathroom floor like I’m doing makeup back in high school, right? Remember that?” Pynn laughed.
If you look on Allison Pynn’s Instagram page you will see she’s created more than thirty body painting images. Her inspiration comes from movies and things that bring her joy such as a Barbie Dolls, gum ball machines and spaghetti.
“I just knew it was going to come from a place that made me happy,” Pynn explained. “So [I] literally made a list of all the things that bring me joy, like butterflies, flowers, wine, like really simple; this was not a deep list.” She laughed.
These paintings are no easy task and can take up to eight hours to complete.
“I just did one yesterday of Jessica Rabbit. It was like an hour and forty-five minutes. Fastest ever. It was really quick, but I would say the average is about five hours.”
Her favorite painting was the spaghetti bowl because it was the most challenging. She created it twice because she felt like she “bombed it” the first time. It took a couple weeks, but after studying pictures of real-life spaghetti noodles she painted it again, loving the results.
If you’re wondering what Allison does with the body paintings after she’s done snapping 20 to 50 pictures for Instagram…she washes it all off!
“Oh, I immediately jump in the shower! I have no attachment to these paintings. I just do it to paint and to create a fun image, but after that I’m straight in the shower.”
Pynn said work has started to pick up again and she’s even received some offers to work in L.A., but she’s still working on the paintings everyone loves so much.
The enjoyment her body art project on social media has brought her followers, brings her joy at a time when joy is a precious commodity.
