Middleboro artist explores the art of body painting

Adorning the body with paint is an art as ancient as mankind – and womankind. Inspired by tribal motifs at her Middleboro studio, Kara Andrews, 40, paints with abandon, applying professional makeup to her human canvases of warm skin. As she applies vibrant colors, the design comes alive as her model moves.

“It’s living art,” Andrews says. “Body painting is a primal form of art.”

Model Sarah O’Brien, 26, of Middleboro, also a body paint artist, was the model for a recent demonstration of Andrews’ talents. O’Brien said inhibitions drop away when she is covered in paint.

“When I have a mask on, you don’t even know who I am, it’s freeing,” she said.

The art – done on a body clad only in a G-string and nipple covers – might seem risque to some, but, said Andrews, “When you have paint on, you don’t look nude anymore.”

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Andrews said some people think body painting is all about sex. “It’s not. It’s art. It’s about beauty and contours. It’s the beauty of the human body as an art form. It’s amazing, a three-dimensional canvas.”

It can take up to eight hours to paint an entire body, and the original art is fleeting, washed down the drain when the subject next showers or bathes. Andrews preserves her masterpieces through photographs that line her walls and fill her portfolio.

Competing both nationally and internationally, Andrews won first place in the master division at a 2010 competition in Las Vegas.

Andrews’ next big events include the Face and Body Art International Convention in Florida and the New Orleans Zombie Crawl, where, she said, “We let loose on the town and 100 to 200 zombies crawl down Bourbon Street.”

Zombie flash mobs are sprouting around the country.

Last fall, Andrews joined in a crawl of about 800 zombies in Providence, painted as a housewife zombie, clad in curlers and a bathrobe.

Andrews also makes the rounds of local fairs, festivals and carnivals for face painting. She is the owner of “Art on the Spot,” a children’s studio in Middleboro.