Jen Seidel-Walsh wanted to do something different for Halloween four years ago, so she spent 10 hours painting herself as a cheetah, getting help from her three children for hair extensions and her makeup-artist mother for hard-to-reach spots (forgive the pun).

When her inspired-by-the-wild "costume" got rave reviews, the Reisterstown makeup artist knew she was ready to take her love of painting to new places: specifically, the human body.

"People were just flipping out, and I felt like a celebrity," Seidel-Walsh said of the Halloween get-up that inspired her latest artistic venture.

Already working as a promotional model herself, she then "just grabbed" other models who agreed to be painted and discovered many companies were eager to use the novelty of body painting to sell their products.

"People were kind of questioning, 'Is that a real shirt? Is it latex?' " she recalled. "That illusion of clothing right there is amazing."

Many clients get clothes painted, but requests also include patterns, scenes and products. She has worked for several vodka companies, for example, which want liquor bottles painted on, and unusual requests, like a man painted as a blue genie for the Len Stoler car dealerships.

Howard Maleson, president of The Breakthrough Group, which coordinates advertising for Len Stoler, said Seidel-Walsh did an "outstanding" job painting a man blue and making him sweat-resistant on a hot day.

"It turned out phenomenal," Maleson said. "She did a great job."

Some requests come from people throwing parties or celebrating anniversaries.

The paint she uses is water-based, nontoxic and usually washes off completely with one shower.

Few are willing to stand for the roughly four hours it takes Seidel-Walsh to do an entire body, so most only get a small portion painted, she said.

But some, like the man covered in realistic muscles and bones in promotion of the BodyWorlds exhibit at the Maryland Science Center, do go for the whole she-bang -- at a cost of more than $500.

The reaction to that kind of art keeps the 39-year-old Seidel-Walsh, a Randallstown native, excited.

A licensed aesthetician, she took the reins of her mother's Owings Mills company, Linda Seidel Cosmetics, in 1988 and now lives in the Franklin Boulevard area with her three children.

In addition to working as a freelance makeup artist, she paints portraits, illustrations and murals -- "anything that is creative that comes my way," she said.

"Body painting happened to be the thing that took off, and it's a niche."

She hopes to put together a high-end photography book of her body painting and is open to other possibilities.

"I would love to take this as a reality show kind of thing," she said, citing the popular show "Ace of Cakes," which chronicles Baltimore chef Duff Goldman's cake creations. "I am really the only one in the area who will do it to the level I do it."

Although the dominant image of the craft is pretty girls clad only in their painted-on "clothes," Seidel-Walsh said she would like to take her art to more sophisticated levels, with the BodyWorlds promotional model being a good example.

"I want people to understand that it's not an erotic thing that I'm doing. It's something that grabs attention, but it's not about nudity," she said. "My goal is to get some kind of amazing product that I can sell over and over with body painting."

---

user comments (0)