Joanne Gair
Encyclopedia
Joanne "Kiwi Jo" or "Kiwi Joe" Gair (born c. 1958) is a New Zealand
-born and raised make-up artist and body painter
whose body paintings have been featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
from 1999 to the 2011 edition. She is considered the world's leading trompe-l'œil body painter and make-up artist, and she became famous with a Vanity Fair
Demi's Birthday Suit
cover of Demi Moore
in a body painting in 1992. Her Disappearing Model
was featured on the highest rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not
. She is the daughter of George Gair
.
In addition to achieving pop culture prominence and respect in the fashion and art worlds starting with her body painting of Demi Moore, she is an award-winning make-up artist in the rock and roll
world who has helped several of her music clients win fashion and style awards. She is also considered a fashion and art trendsetter, and for a long time she was associated with Madonna
. In 2001, she had her first retrospective
and in 2005, she published her first book on body painting. At the peak of her pop culture fame after the Vanity Fair cover, she was seriously considered for an Absolut Vodka
Absolute Gair ad campaign. She has done magazine editorial work, and in 2005, she became a photographer of her own body paintings in both books and magazines.
Gair, who is New Zealand-born and was raised in Auckland
, lives in the United States and is based in Los Angeles, California
. In 1977, she began teaching dance at a New Zealand primary school. She moved from New Zealand at the age of 21 and had a variety of stops on her way to Los Angeles. Most of the time was spent in Australia
and Amsterdam
,until she ventured to Los Angeles at the time of the 1984 Summer Olympics
, after five years away from home. With the help of the Cloutier Agency
she obtained a work permit
. She then approached the Chanel
and Gaultier
beauty salon
s to offer her already well-respected make-up artist services. They both accepted her and she further solidified her reputation to the point where instead of being asked if she was George Gair's daughter it was more common for her father to be asked if he was Joanne Gair's father. Her early work in the music industry included album cover
and music video
work for David Lee Roth
, Tina Turner
, Grace Jones
, Annie Lennox
, and Mick Jagger
. One of her early successes was being employed to do Roth's 1986 Eat 'Em and Smile album cover. These experiences led to work with Madonna, which started with music videos for "Express Yourself" and "Vogue". She has also done work on music videos for Aerosmith
and Nine Inch Nails
. Her work on the 1997 Nine Inch Nails video for "The Perfect Drug
" won her the makeup portion of the best hair/makeup in a music video at the Music Video Production Awards. She had also won awards for Madonna's Frozen
. Among the other notable musicians she has worked with is Gwen Stefani
, who won Most Stylish Video at the 1999 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards working with Gair on the video for No Doubt
's song "New
". Gair also worked on ad campaigns and for photo features in efforts to exhibit the artistic visions of others.
Eventually she expanded beyond make-up artistry to body painting to express her own artistic vision. In August 1991, Demi Moore caused international artistic commotion by appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue in the photo More Demi Moore
, with Gair as the make-up artist and Annie Leibovitz
as the photographer. Exactly one year later, she returned to the cover of the same magazine nude as a product of Gair and Leibovitz in a nearly equally as shocking body painting, Demi's Birthday Suit (pictured right). Gair was the primary body painter of this art and the magazine cover art propelled Gair to fame. Fifteen years later, it continues to be considered the most well-known example of modern body painting. The 1992 cover that entailed a thirteen-hour sitting for Gair and her team of make-up artists was a commemoration of the August 1991 photo. The shooting was storied because photographer Annie Leibovitz
could not decide where to shoot and reserved two mobile homes, four hotel rooms and five houses. The pop culture attention given to Gair and her body painting led Absolut Vodka
to consider an Absolut Gair body painting promotion in 1993.
Gair is considered a Trompe-l'œil body painter, but at times she describes herself more generally and colloquially as an illusionist. She also refers to herself and others refer to her as an image-maker for her contributions to people's perceptions of others. She was originally inspired to specialize in body painting by facial skin adornment of the indigenous Māori people of her native New Zealand. However, the glam rockers and heavy metal rockers as well as white-face geishas, Native American Indians and Indian mehndi all contributed to her inspiration. She began using Sharpies
to draw on people in 1977. Her work, which became prominent with the August 1992 Vanity Fair cover of Demi Moore, has transcended various media and involved her with leading photographers, directors
, super models and celebrities
. Gair has worked with leading celebrities (Madonna, Cindy Crawford
, Michelle Pfeiffer
, Kim Basinger
, Christina Aguilera
, Gwyneth Paltrow
, Sophia Loren
and Celine Dion
) and been in editorial (Vogue
, W
, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy
, BlackBook
, and Harper's Bazaar
), fashion campaigns (Donna Karan
, Versace, Victoria's Secret
, Guess, and bebe
), cosmetic companies (L'Oréal
, Maybelline
, Revlon
, Oil of Olay, and Rimmel
) and mega-brands such as Evian
. At one point she was beauty editor of Black Book. Her work with Madonna includes music videos such as Express Yourself, Vogue, Fever, Rain
, Frozen, the Blonde Ambition Tour and its subsequent feature documentary Truth or Dare
. When Madonna teamed up with Herb Ritts
for black and white photographs, Gair did the eyelash
es and make-up. Gair has been the subject of numerous television program
s and magazine articles, including what was the highest rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not
?. Her first retrospective was exhibited at the Auckland Museum as part of the Vodafone Body Art exhibition in 2001 and early 2002.
Gair has earned many motion picture credits
for work as a make-up artist. In 1996 & 1997, she was employed on three of Moore's films (Striptease
, If These Walls Could Talk
& G.I. Jane
). In addition, she earned a 1997 credit on Playboy: Farrah Fawcett, All of Me for Farrah Fawcett
. In 2002, she earned a make-up credit on People I Know
for working with Kim Basinger
. She also earned a 2003 credit for work on the short documentary
The Work of Director Chris Cunningham.
In her first year in the Swimsuit Issue (1999), she painted Rebecca Romijn
, Heidi Klum
, Sarah O'Hare, Michelle Behennah
, Yamila Díaz-Rahi, and Daniela Peštová
in a variety of beachware. The first Gair Sports Illustrated body paintings occurred at Richard Branson
's Necker Island
in the British Virgin Islands
. Some of these also appeared in a 2001 Sports Illustrated calendar, and Heidi Klum's tie-dye
d swimsuit bodypainting earned her and Gair the cover of the German edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2001, the Swimsuit Issue had a goddess
theme. The cover featuring Elsa Benítez
used the caption "Goddess of the Mediterranean". Gair contributed to this theme by body painting the models as statue
s of goddess: Klum (Athena
), Díaz-Rahi (Thalia), Veronika Vařeková
(Aphrodite
, Venus
), Molly Sims
(Flora
), Noémie Lenoir
(Luna), Fernanda Tavares
(Aurora
), and Shakara Ledard
(Diana
) as goddesses. At about the same time in 2001, her work featuring Klum was featured on the cover of the tenth anniversary of Shape Magazine
. In 2003, she painted a seven continent
world map on Rachel Hunter
, a fellow New Zealander, and purposely represented Australia and New Zealand "down under" (on the buttocks). In the 2004 issue, when she painted Jessica White
, Petra Nemcova
, Marisa Miller
, Noemie Lenoir, Melissa Keller
, and Hall, the paintings featured both body painting and real bathing suit portions in most images. However, bathing suit portions were not apparent in all images. In the 2005 issue, she painted Bridget Hall
, White, Miller, Anne V, and Sarahyba with athletic team outfits. In the 2006 issue, she painted multiple bathing suits on Klum. One of these appeared on the cover of the German edition of Sports Illustrated. It was the ninth time that Gair and Klum worked together and the seventh time that they did so for Sports Illustrated. In the 2007 issue, where music was the theme and Beyonce Knowles
was featured on the cover, she painted rock and roll
related tee shirts and bikini
bottoms on Daniella Sarahyba
, Miller, Praver and Ana Paula Araujo
. In the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, when she painted bathing suits on Quiana Grant
, Jessica Gomes
, Marisa Miller, and Tori Praver
, the average sitting time for the subjects/objects was thirteen hours.
The photographers in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2004 were respectively Antoine Verglas, James Porto, Michael Zeppetello and Steven White for the Swimsuit Issue works. From 2005–2007 Gair took the photographs of her body paintings herself. Verglas again photographed the bodypainting for the 2008 Swimsuit Issue. No body painting pictures have been chosen as the main image on the cover of the Swimsuit Issue. However, in the 2005 Swimsuit Issue (pictured left) in which Carolyn Murphy
is the cover model, Jessica White was shown as an inset on the cover in a Miami Dolphins
jersey body painting by Gair. Thus, as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue photographer Gair debuted on the cover in a sense. In 2006 a small cropped
portion of her photograph of a bodypainting of Klum appeared in an inset on the cover, but no bodypainting was apparent.
by Heidi Klum
) (ISBN 0-7893-1509-2, Universem, 2006) as well as one Spanish
book: Arte en el cuerpo (ISBN 970-718-470-1, Numen, 2007). In her first book, Paint A 'Licious, she was both the painter and photographer as well as the arranger who conceived the scenes. Paint A 'Licious had a theme of helping people achieve their fantasies. Among the works included were one called 'It's a Stretch but You've Still Got It,' which shows an old woman in a pink tutu
doing the splits on a golden stage, with the help of an assistant painted to blend into the curtains and 'No Sweat' which shows an overweight woman happily leading an aerobics class with her body painted so that she appears 30 pounds slimmer. In the book, washboard abs are achieved by sitting still for a few hours, as is an hourglass figure. The book was produced over the course of ten months in New Zealand.
Her second book, Body Painting, includes seventy-five works and some of the photographers involved were Annie Leibovitz
, Herb Ritts
and David LaChapelle
. The book includes many works from Gair's Auckland Museum exhibition as well as selected Swimsuit Issue images. Former model and current First Lady
of France, Carla Bruni
, was a subject of the book. Several Heidi Klum photos are included from various photo shoots, including the 1991 Shape magazine tenth anniversary shoot. Several photos of Demi Moore also appear including alternate photos from the Kauai
, Hawaii
portion of the 1992 Demi's Birthday Suit week of shooting as well as both photos of her 1994 pregnancy with Tallulah Belle Willis and subsequent 1995 Barbie
body paintings. A photo from the Disappearing Model work from Ripley's Believe It or Not? is also included. The book also includes magazine work such as a May 1990 Fame shoot with Goldie Hawn
and Matthew Rolston
and a November 1998 Interview
shoot with Pamela Anderson
and David LaChapelle as well as some Pirelli
calendar work with Herb Ritts, Carolyn Murphy and Alek Wek
.
Sports Illustrated produced Sports Illustrated: In the Paint (ISBN 978-1-933821-20-7, Time, Incorporated Home Entertainment, 2007) in November 2007. The book is subtitled "The complete body-painting collection from the SI Swimsuit Issue: The Art of Joanne Gair." The book contains reproductions of photographs of all of the body paintings that have been included in the swimsuit issue since Gair has become involved and excludes all body painting that preceded Gair's involvement. Thus, she is the featured artist of the book that includes photographs by all of the aforementioned photographers. The book also contains stories that accompanied the some of the issues by Sports illustrated writers such as Rick Reilly
who observed the process. The cover image of Sarah O'Hare was shot by Antoine Verglas who photographed Gair's 1999 bodypaintings for the Swimsuit Issue. The book includes images produced in Gair's earlier efforts for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from 1999–2007. It also includes several behind-the-scenes images not include in the magazine.
Although to many she is best known for Demi's Birthday Suit, art aficionados consider her most famous work Disappearing Model
. The work appeared on Ripley's Believe it or Not!. In the trompe l'oeil body painting, the face and body of the model are almost indistinguishable from the red and blue and yellow flowers of the wallpaper in the background. Her first body paintings was also memorable as she painted a moko
on a female Ford Modeling Agency fashion model named Jana, which is a tabooed employment of a traditionally male ritual
face mask. An example from Gair's website of her ability to trick the eye into seeing a three dimensional subject blend with a two-dimensional background is seen in a photograph of a pregnant Elle Macpherson
. Other examples of this technique include the cover of her first book (pictured below) and images from within this book.
She participated in Germany's Next Topmodel by painting and photographing the final four contestants in leopard
prints. During the episode, which was Cycle 1 episode 6, she handled two models per day working for six to seven hours with each. The works covered the shoulders, legs, breasts and stomach and included long hair extensions. The episode resulted in work that was so successful that none of the contestants were eliminated.
In recent years, Gair has added photography to her professional skills. In addition to being the photographer of Paint A 'Licious, she has been the photographer in some years of her Sports Illustrated work. For example, she was the photographer of Heidi Klum in 2006. At the end of 2007, Gair was using a Canon 5D camera.
on the North Island
of New Zealand, but she now lives in both Los Angeles and New York, New York. Her father is Hon. George Gair
, a former New Zealand politician, and her nephew Alastair Gair is a competitive Etchells
racer. Her father was a long-time Member of the Parliament of New Zealand
(1966–1990) and later Mayor of North Shore City (1995–1998). Her mother is Fay Gair, and her elder sister Linda Gair served both as a model and as a painting assistant in several of the paintings in her first book. Linda also has a daughter named Lauren. One of the paintings for which Linda assisted was the cover of Paint A 'Licious. Gair also has an older brother named Warwick.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
-born and raised make-up artist and body painter
Body painting
Body painting, or sometimes bodypainting, is a form of body art. Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours, or at most a couple of weeks. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting...
whose body paintings have been featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....
from 1999 to the 2011 edition. She is considered the world's leading trompe-l'œil body painter and make-up artist, and she became famous with a Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
Demi's Birthday Suit
Demi's Birthday Suit
Demi‘s Birthday Suit, or The Suit, was a trompe-l'œil body painting by Joanne Gair photographed by Annie Leibovitz that was featured on the cover of the Vanity Fair August 1992 issue to commemorate and exploit the success of Leibovitz's More Demi Moore cover photo of Demi Moore one year earlier...
cover of Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
in a body painting in 1992. Her Disappearing Model
Disappearing Model
Disappearing Model is a trompe-l'œil body painting by Joanne Gair that was part of episode 1.19 or 119 of Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which was the highest rated episode...
was featured on the highest rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...
. She is the daughter of George Gair
George Gair
George Frederick Gair, CMG, QSO is a former New Zealand politician. He was once deputy leader of the National Party in the Parliament of New Zealand, and was considered by many to be a possible contender for the leadership itself...
.
In addition to achieving pop culture prominence and respect in the fashion and art worlds starting with her body painting of Demi Moore, she is an award-winning make-up artist in the rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
world who has helped several of her music clients win fashion and style awards. She is also considered a fashion and art trendsetter, and for a long time she was associated with Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
. In 2001, she had her first retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective generally means to take a look back at events that already have taken place. For example, the term is used in medicine, describing a look back at a patient's medical history or lifestyle.-Music:...
and in 2005, she published her first book on body painting. At the peak of her pop culture fame after the Vanity Fair cover, she was seriously considered for an Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, Skåne, in southern Sweden. Since July 2008 the company has been owned by the French firm Pernod Ricard who bought V&S Group from the Swedish government....
Absolute Gair ad campaign. She has done magazine editorial work, and in 2005, she became a photographer of her own body paintings in both books and magazines.
Career
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, lives in the United States and is based in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. In 1977, she began teaching dance at a New Zealand primary school. She moved from New Zealand at the age of 21 and had a variety of stops on her way to Los Angeles. Most of the time was spent in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
,until she ventured to Los Angeles at the time of the 1984 Summer Olympics
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
, after five years away from home. With the help of the Cloutier Agency
Cloutier (style agency)
The Cloutier Agency based in Santa Monica, California represents creative artists who provide hair, make-up, grooming and wardrobe styling for motion pictures, advertising, photographic layouts and more. The agency also sometimes provides photographers and art direction for photo shoots.The...
she obtained a work permit
Work permit
Work permit is a generic term for a legal authorization which allows a person to take employment.It is most often used in reference to instances where a person is given permission to work in a country where one does not hold citizenship, but is also used in reference to minors, who in some...
. She then approached the Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...
and Gaultier
Gaultier
Gaultier can refer to:*Grégory Gaultier , French squash player*Bon Gaultier, British writer*Denis Gaultier , French lutenist and composer*Ennemond Gaultier , French lutenist and composer...
beauty salon
Beauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for men and women...
s to offer her already well-respected make-up artist services. They both accepted her and she further solidified her reputation to the point where instead of being asked if she was George Gair's daughter it was more common for her father to be asked if he was Joanne Gair's father. Her early work in the music industry included album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
and music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
work for David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
, Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
, Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...
, and Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
. One of her early successes was being employed to do Roth's 1986 Eat 'Em and Smile album cover. These experiences led to work with Madonna, which started with music videos for "Express Yourself" and "Vogue". She has also done work on music videos for Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
and Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
. Her work on the 1997 Nine Inch Nails video for "The Perfect Drug
The Perfect Drug
"The Perfect Drug" or ' is a song by Nine Inch Nails. It was written for the David Lynch film Lost Highway and originally appeared on the Lost Highway soundtrack and as a single from the score in 1997...
" won her the makeup portion of the best hair/makeup in a music video at the Music Video Production Awards. She had also won awards for Madonna's Frozen
Frozen (song)
"Frozen" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her eight studio album Ray of Light. It was released as the lead single from the album on 23 February 1998 by Maverick Records...
. Among the other notable musicians she has worked with is Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
, who won Most Stylish Video at the 1999 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards working with Gair on the video for No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
's song "New
New (song)
"New" is a song by the rock band No Doubt, written by Tom Dumont and Gwen Stefani for the Go soundtrack . It was later included on No Doubt's fourth studio album Return of Saturn .The song is heavily influenced by New Wave music...
". Gair also worked on ad campaigns and for photo features in efforts to exhibit the artistic visions of others.
More Demi Moore
More Demi Moore or the August 1991 Vanity Fair cover was a controversial handbra nude photograph of the then seven-months pregnant Demi Moore taken by Annie Leibovitz for the August 1991 cover of Vanity Fair to accompany a cover story about Moore....
, with Gair as the make-up artist and Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz
Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer.-Early life and education:Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's...
as the photographer. Exactly one year later, she returned to the cover of the same magazine nude as a product of Gair and Leibovitz in a nearly equally as shocking body painting, Demi's Birthday Suit (pictured right). Gair was the primary body painter of this art and the magazine cover art propelled Gair to fame. Fifteen years later, it continues to be considered the most well-known example of modern body painting. The 1992 cover that entailed a thirteen-hour sitting for Gair and her team of make-up artists was a commemoration of the August 1991 photo. The shooting was storied because photographer Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz
Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer.-Early life and education:Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's...
could not decide where to shoot and reserved two mobile homes, four hotel rooms and five houses. The pop culture attention given to Gair and her body painting led Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, Skåne, in southern Sweden. Since July 2008 the company has been owned by the French firm Pernod Ricard who bought V&S Group from the Swedish government....
to consider an Absolut Gair body painting promotion in 1993.
Gair is considered a Trompe-l'œil body painter, but at times she describes herself more generally and colloquially as an illusionist. She also refers to herself and others refer to her as an image-maker for her contributions to people's perceptions of others. She was originally inspired to specialize in body painting by facial skin adornment of the indigenous Māori people of her native New Zealand. However, the glam rockers and heavy metal rockers as well as white-face geishas, Native American Indians and Indian mehndi all contributed to her inspiration. She began using Sharpies
Sharpie (marker)
Sharpie is a manufacturer of writing instruments whose products are sold in over 20 countries. Originally a name designating a single permanent marker, the Sharpie brand has been widely expanded and can now be found on a variety of previously unrelated permanent and non-permanent pens and markers...
to draw on people in 1977. Her work, which became prominent with the August 1992 Vanity Fair cover of Demi Moore, has transcended various media and involved her with leading photographers, directors
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
, super models and celebrities
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
. Gair has worked with leading celebrities (Madonna, Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
, Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
, Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
, Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
, Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
and Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
) and been in editorial (Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, W
W (magazine)
W is a monthly American fashion magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, who purchased original owner Fairchild Publications in 1999. It was created in 1971 by the publisher of sister magazine Woman's Wear Daily, James Brady. The magazine is an oversize format – ten inches wide and...
, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, BlackBook
BlackBook Magazine
BlackBook is an American arts and culture magazine published 8x a year. Founded in 1996 as a quarterly publication, BlackBook has now expanded to a circulation of roughly 150,000. The magazine covers topics ranging from art, music, and literature to politics, popular culture, and travel guides....
, and Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
), fashion campaigns (Donna Karan
Donna Karan
Donna Karan is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.-Early life:...
, Versace, Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret is an American retailer of women's wear, lingerie and beauty products. It is the largest segment of publicly-traded Limited Brands with sales of over US$5 billion and an operating income of $1 billion in 2006...
, Guess, and bebe
Bebe stores
bebe stores are an American clothing retailer founded in 1976. The name was inspired by, and is pronounced as in, the phrase "to be or not to be" from the play Hamlet. Manny Mashouf, who emigrated to the United States in the early 1970s, opened the first bebe store in San Francisco during a time...
), cosmetic companies (L'Oréal
L'Oréal
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics...
, Maybelline
Maybelline
Maybelline is an American makeup brand sold worldwide and owned by L'Oréal. Their motto is Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline.-History:...
, Revlon
Revlon
Revlon is an American cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company founded in 1932.-History:Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name...
, Oil of Olay, and Rimmel
Rimmel
Rimmel is a cosmetics brand, now owned by Coty, Inc.. The House of Rimmel was originally founded by Eugene Rimmel in 1834 in Regent Street, London, UK....
) and mega-brands such as Evian
Evian
Evian is a French brand of mineral water coming from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva.Today, Evian is owned by Danone Group, a French multinational company...
. At one point she was beauty editor of Black Book. Her work with Madonna includes music videos such as Express Yourself, Vogue, Fever, Rain
Rain (Madonna song)
"Rain" is a single by American singer-songwriter Madonna and was released on July 17, 1993 by Maverick Records. It was the fifth single release from her fifth studio album Erotica...
, Frozen, the Blonde Ambition Tour and its subsequent feature documentary Truth or Dare
Madonna: Truth or Dare
Madonna: Truth or Dare is a 1991 American documentary film chronicling the life of American singer-songwriter Madonna during her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour...
. When Madonna teamed up with Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts
Herbert "Herb" Ritts was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture.-Early life and career:...
for black and white photographs, Gair did the eyelash
Eyelash
An eyelash or simply lash is one of the hairs that grow at the edge of the eyelid. Eyelashes protect the eye from debris and perform some of the same function as whiskers do on a cat or a mouse in the sense that they are sensitive to being touched, thus providing a warning that an object is near...
es and make-up. Gair has been the subject of numerous television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s and magazine articles, including what was the highest rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...
?. Her first retrospective was exhibited at the Auckland Museum as part of the Vodafone Body Art exhibition in 2001 and early 2002.
Gair has earned many motion picture credits
Motion picture credits
-Opening credits:Opening credits, in a television program, motion picture, or video game, are shown at the beginning of a show and list the most important members of the production. They are usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in...
for work as a make-up artist. In 1996 & 1997, she was employed on three of Moore's films (Striptease
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
, If These Walls Could Talk
If These Walls Could Talk
If These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years each: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by...
& G.I. Jane
G.I. Jane
G.I. Jane is a 1997 American action film directed by Ridley Scott, produced by Largo Entertainment, Scott Free Productions and Caravan Pictures, distributed by Hollywood Pictures and starring Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen. The film tells the fictional story of the first woman to undergo training...
). In addition, she earned a 1997 credit on Playboy: Farrah Fawcett, All of Me for Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
. In 2002, she earned a make-up credit on People I Know
People I Know
People I Know is a 2002 crime drama film directed by Daniel Algrant and stars Al Pacino, Kim Basinger, and Téa Leoni.-Plot:Eli Wurman is a Jewish publicist on the out, but all he knows is how to hustle and cajole, threaten and persuade. The hazy mania of his everyday life is fuelled by a steady...
for working with Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
. She also earned a 2003 credit for work on the short documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
The Work of Director Chris Cunningham.
Sports Illustrated
Rebecca Romijn
Rebecca Alie Romijn is an American actress and former fashion model. She is best known for her role as Mystique in the X-Men films, and for her recurring role as Alexis Meade on the television series Ugly Betty.-Early life:...
, Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum
Heidi Samuel , better known by her birth name Heidi Klum, is a German model, actress, television host, businesswoman, fashion designer, television producer, and occasional singer. In 2008 she became an American citizen while maintaining her native German citizenship...
, Sarah O'Hare, Michelle Behennah
Michelle Behennah
Michelle Behennah is an English model.- Early life :Behennah was born in Singapore where her father was a school administrator. The youngest of three children, Michelle relocated to Sheffield, England, after her parents' divorce...
, Yamila Díaz-Rahi, and Daniela Peštová
Daniela Peštová
Daniela Peštová is a Czech model. She was born in Teplice, Czech Republic, and was discovered by the Madison Modeling Agency's Dominique Caffin. She had plans to attend college but after winning a modelling contest she moved to Paris to sign with Madison Modeling Agency...
in a variety of beachware. The first Gair Sports Illustrated body paintings occurred at Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
's Necker Island
Necker Island (British Virgin Islands)
Necker Island is a small island in the British Virgin Islands just north of Virgin Gorda, located at . All of the land on the island is owned by Sir Richard Branson, famous for his Virgin brand, and it is part of the Virgin Limited Edition portfolio of luxury properties...
in the British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
. Some of these also appeared in a 2001 Sports Illustrated calendar, and Heidi Klum's tie-dye
Tie-dye
Tie-dye is a process of resist dyeing textiles or clothing which is made from knit or woven fabric, usually cotton; typically using bright colors. It is a modern version of traditional dyeing methods used in many cultures throughout the world. "Tie-dye" can also describe the resulting pattern or an...
d swimsuit bodypainting earned her and Gair the cover of the German edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2001, the Swimsuit Issue had a goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
theme. The cover featuring Elsa Benítez
Elsa Benítez
Elsa Benítez is a Mexican model perhaps best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, including appearing on the cover in 2001.-Career:...
used the caption "Goddess of the Mediterranean". Gair contributed to this theme by body painting the models as statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
s of goddess: Klum (Athena
Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
), Díaz-Rahi (Thalia), Veronika Vařeková
Veronika Vareková
Veronika Vařeková is a Czech model. Her name in the English language press is often given as Veronica Varekova.A native of Olomouc, Czech Republic, Veronica moved to New York City at the age of 19 to attend the Parsons School of Design...
(Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
, Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
), Molly Sims
Molly Sims
Molly Sims is an American model and actress. Sims is known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues and her role as Delinda Deline in the NBC drama Las Vegas. She is also an ambassador for Operation Smile...
(Flora
Flora (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in Roman mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association with the spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime...
), Noémie Lenoir
Noémie Lenoir
Noémie Lenoir is a French model and actress of African and European descent.-Career:Lenoir was first spotted by Ford Models when she was 16 years old. In 1995, Lenoir signed with L'Oréal, and has since appeared in their advertisements alongside Laetitia Casta and long-term model and actress Andie...
(Luna), Fernanda Tavares
Fernanda Tavares
Fernanda Tavares is a Brazilian model.-Biography:Born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, Tavares was appearing in local shows at the age of nine, and at just 13 she won the "Elite Look of the Year" contest. A year later, she was invited by agents to go to São Paulo to pursue a modeling career...
(Aurora
Aurora (mythology)
Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry.Like Greek Eos and Rigvedic Ushas , Aurora continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, *Hausos....
), and Shakara Ledard
Shakara Ledard
Shakara Ledard is a model and actress, originally from The Bahamas, and now residing in New York.She has posed for Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue as well as for Maxim Magazine. Ledard has been featured in music videos for Justin Timberlake, Usher and Babyface...
(Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
) as goddesses. At about the same time in 2001, her work featuring Klum was featured on the cover of the tenth anniversary of Shape Magazine
Shape Magazine
Shape Magazine is a monthly English language fitness magazine started by Weider Publications in 1981, founded by Christine MacIntyre and became the #1 women's fitness magazine...
. In 2003, she painted a seven continent
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
world map on Rachel Hunter
Rachel Hunter
Rachel Hunter is a New Zealand born American model, actress and reality TV show host who now resides in the U.S. She is best known for her appearance in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues and her longtime marriage to singer Rod Stewart, which ended in 2006...
, a fellow New Zealander, and purposely represented Australia and New Zealand "down under" (on the buttocks). In the 2004 issue, when she painted Jessica White
Jessica White
Jessica White is an American model and occasional actress and DJ.-Career:At the age of 16, White was scouted in her hometown of Buffalo, New York, and had gone to Personal Best modeling school at age sixteen...
, Petra Nemcova
Petra Nemcová
Petra Němcová is a Czech model, television host, author, and philanthropist. She is the founder and chair of the Happy Hearts Fund. In December 2004, she was injured in Thailand by a tsunami resulting from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake; her fiancé, photographer Simon Atlee, was killed in the...
, Marisa Miller
Marisa Miller
Marisa Lee Miller is an American model best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues and her work for lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret. After a stint shooting with photographer Mario Testino for fashion magazines like Vogue, Miller began working for both companies in...
, Noemie Lenoir, Melissa Keller
Melissa Keller
Melissa Keller is an American model and actress.Keller began her modeling career when she was 15 years old and has modeled for Parasuco, Noxzema, GAP, Revlon, L'Oréal, Aveda, and for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2002, 2003, and 2004...
, and Hall, the paintings featured both body painting and real bathing suit portions in most images. However, bathing suit portions were not apparent in all images. In the 2005 issue, she painted Bridget Hall
Bridget Hall
Bridget Hall is an American model.Hall was born in Springdale, Arkansas. At the age of 10, she was modeling in Dallas, Texas where she was living in the suburb of Farmers Branch, where she briefly attended R. L. Turner High School. Shortly after, she moved with her mother Donna Hall to New York...
, White, Miller, Anne V, and Sarahyba with athletic team outfits. In the 2006 issue, she painted multiple bathing suits on Klum. One of these appeared on the cover of the German edition of Sports Illustrated. It was the ninth time that Gair and Klum worked together and the seventh time that they did so for Sports Illustrated. In the 2007 issue, where music was the theme and Beyonce Knowles
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
was featured on the cover, she painted rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
related tee shirts and bikini
Bikini
The bikini is typically a women's two-piece swimsuit. One part of the attire covers the breasts and the other part covers the crotch and part of or the entire buttocks, leaving an uncovered area between the two. Merriam–Webster describes the bikini as "a woman's scanty two-piece bathing suit" or "a...
bottoms on Daniella Sarahyba
Daniella Sarahyba
-Early life:Sarahyba was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her mother, Mara Lúcia Sarahyba, was also a model in Brazil. When she was 3 days old, she appeared with her mother on the cover of Brazilian parenting magazine Pais & Filhos. Sarahyba began entering modeling contests at age 12...
, Miller, Praver and Ana Paula Araujo
Ana Paula Araújo
Ana Paula Araujo is a Brazilian model who appeared in the 2007 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In addition to working with world-class photographers on her SI shoots, she was the object/subject of Joanne Gair body painting works in the 2007 edition. She has also appeared in advertisements for...
. In the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, when she painted bathing suits on Quiana Grant
Quiana Grant
Quiana Grant is an American model who appeared in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was featured in a bodypainting layout as a canvas for bodypaint artist Joanne Gair who is in her tenth year of producing bodypaint art for the Swimsuit Issue...
, Jessica Gomes
Jessica Gomes
Jessica Gomes is an Australian model of Singaporean-Chinese and Portuguese heritage who appeared in the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of the Swimsuit Issue of the United States–published magazine Sports Illustrated. She was featured in a bodypainting layout as a canvas for bodypaint artist...
, Marisa Miller, and Tori Praver
Tori Praver
Tori Praver is an American model perhaps best known for her appearances in the 2007-2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.- Biography :...
, the average sitting time for the subjects/objects was thirteen hours.
The photographers in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2004 were respectively Antoine Verglas, James Porto, Michael Zeppetello and Steven White for the Swimsuit Issue works. From 2005–2007 Gair took the photographs of her body paintings herself. Verglas again photographed the bodypainting for the 2008 Swimsuit Issue. No body painting pictures have been chosen as the main image on the cover of the Swimsuit Issue. However, in the 2005 Swimsuit Issue (pictured left) in which Carolyn Murphy
Carolyn Murphy
Carolyn Murphy is an American model and actress.-Biography:Carolyn Murphy was born in Panama City, Florida and grew up mainly in Northwest Florida, with brief periods in England and Maryland, as a result of her parents’ divorce. Her career began when at the age of 16, her mother enrolled her in a...
is the cover model, Jessica White was shown as an inset on the cover in a Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
jersey body painting by Gair. Thus, as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue photographer Gair debuted on the cover in a sense. In 2006 a small cropped
Cropping (image)
Cropping refers to the removal of the outer parts of an image to improve framing, accentuate subject matter or change aspect ratio. Depending on the application, this may be performed on a physical photograph, artwork or film footage, or achieved digitally using image editing software...
portion of her photograph of a bodypainting of Klum appeared in an inset on the cover, but no bodypainting was apparent.
Books
Gair has produced two English books: Paint A 'Licious: The Pain-Free Way to Achieving Your Naked Ambitions (ISBN 0-7407-5537-4, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005) and Body Painting: Masterpieces By Joanne Gair (with forewordForeword
A foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells...
by Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum
Heidi Samuel , better known by her birth name Heidi Klum, is a German model, actress, television host, businesswoman, fashion designer, television producer, and occasional singer. In 2008 she became an American citizen while maintaining her native German citizenship...
) (ISBN 0-7893-1509-2, Universem, 2006) as well as one Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
book: Arte en el cuerpo (ISBN 970-718-470-1, Numen, 2007). In her first book, Paint A 'Licious, she was both the painter and photographer as well as the arranger who conceived the scenes. Paint A 'Licious had a theme of helping people achieve their fantasies. Among the works included were one called 'It's a Stretch but You've Still Got It,' which shows an old woman in a pink tutu
Ballet tutu
A tutu is a skirt worn as a costume in a ballet performance, often with attached bodice. It might be single layer, hanging down, or multiple layers starched and jutting out.There are several types of ballet tutu:...
doing the splits on a golden stage, with the help of an assistant painted to blend into the curtains and 'No Sweat' which shows an overweight woman happily leading an aerobics class with her body painted so that she appears 30 pounds slimmer. In the book, washboard abs are achieved by sitting still for a few hours, as is an hourglass figure. The book was produced over the course of ten months in New Zealand.
Her second book, Body Painting, includes seventy-five works and some of the photographers involved were Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz
Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer.-Early life and education:Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's...
, Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts
Herbert "Herb" Ritts was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture.-Early life and career:...
and David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique, sexualized, and often humorous style.-Early life:...
. The book includes many works from Gair's Auckland Museum exhibition as well as selected Swimsuit Issue images. Former model and current First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
of France, Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
, was a subject of the book. Several Heidi Klum photos are included from various photo shoots, including the 1991 Shape magazine tenth anniversary shoot. Several photos of Demi Moore also appear including alternate photos from the Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
portion of the 1992 Demi's Birthday Suit week of shooting as well as both photos of her 1994 pregnancy with Tallulah Belle Willis and subsequent 1995 Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
body paintings. A photo from the Disappearing Model work from Ripley's Believe It or Not? is also included. The book also includes magazine work such as a May 1990 Fame shoot with Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
and Matthew Rolston
Matthew Rolston
Matthew Russell Rolston is an American photographer and music video director. Rolston is known for his signature lighting techniques and detailed approach to art direction and design, and has been repeatedly identified throughout his career with the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour...
and a November 1998 Interview
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
shoot with Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Denise Anderson is a Canadian-American actress, model, producer, author, activist, and former showgirl, known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch, and V.I.P. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990...
and David LaChapelle as well as some Pirelli
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...
calendar work with Herb Ritts, Carolyn Murphy and Alek Wek
Alek Wek
Alek Wek is a Sudanese British model who first appeared on the catwalks at the age of 18 in 1995, sparking a career lasting to date. She is from the Dinka ethnic group in South Sudan, but in 1991 she and some family members fled to Britain to escape the civil war in Sudan...
.
Sports Illustrated produced Sports Illustrated: In the Paint (ISBN 978-1-933821-20-7, Time, Incorporated Home Entertainment, 2007) in November 2007. The book is subtitled "The complete body-painting collection from the SI Swimsuit Issue: The Art of Joanne Gair." The book contains reproductions of photographs of all of the body paintings that have been included in the swimsuit issue since Gair has become involved and excludes all body painting that preceded Gair's involvement. Thus, she is the featured artist of the book that includes photographs by all of the aforementioned photographers. The book also contains stories that accompanied the some of the issues by Sports illustrated writers such as Rick Reilly
Rick Reilly
Richard "Rick" Paul Reilly is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for Sports Illustrated, Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008 where he is a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote the back page column for ESPN the Magazine...
who observed the process. The cover image of Sarah O'Hare was shot by Antoine Verglas who photographed Gair's 1999 bodypaintings for the Swimsuit Issue. The book includes images produced in Gair's earlier efforts for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from 1999–2007. It also includes several behind-the-scenes images not include in the magazine.
Television
Disappearing Model
Disappearing Model is a trompe-l'œil body painting by Joanne Gair that was part of episode 1.19 or 119 of Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which was the highest rated episode...
. The work appeared on Ripley's Believe it or Not!. In the trompe l'oeil body painting, the face and body of the model are almost indistinguishable from the red and blue and yellow flowers of the wallpaper in the background. Her first body paintings was also memorable as she painted a moko
Ta moko
Tā moko is the permanent body and face marking by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Traditionally it is distinct from tattoo and tatau in that the skin was carved by rather than punctured...
on a female Ford Modeling Agency fashion model named Jana, which is a tabooed employment of a traditionally male ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
face mask. An example from Gair's website of her ability to trick the eye into seeing a three dimensional subject blend with a two-dimensional background is seen in a photograph of a pregnant Elle Macpherson
Elle Macpherson
Elle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s...
. Other examples of this technique include the cover of her first book (pictured below) and images from within this book.
She participated in Germany's Next Topmodel by painting and photographing the final four contestants in leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
prints. During the episode, which was Cycle 1 episode 6, she handled two models per day working for six to seven hours with each. The works covered the shoulders, legs, breasts and stomach and included long hair extensions. The episode resulted in work that was so successful that none of the contestants were eliminated.
Style
Gair has now developed a style as a body painter. Her typical job takes her and her team eight hours, but some jobs take twice that. She does not charge by the hour. Gair is always well prepared for her jobs, but does not generally sketch her work on paper. In fact, she claims to have only had to do so twice in over twenty years of body painting. When she needs to test something out she usually uses her opposite (left) arm or hand.In recent years, Gair has added photography to her professional skills. In addition to being the photographer of Paint A 'Licious, she has been the photographer in some years of her Sports Illustrated work. For example, she was the photographer of Heidi Klum in 2006. At the end of 2007, Gair was using a Canon 5D camera.
Family
Gair is from TakapunaTakapuna
Takapuna is a central, coastal suburb of North Shore City, located in the northern North Island of New Zealand, at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitemata Harbour...
on the North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
of New Zealand, but she now lives in both Los Angeles and New York, New York. Her father is Hon. George Gair
George Gair
George Frederick Gair, CMG, QSO is a former New Zealand politician. He was once deputy leader of the National Party in the Parliament of New Zealand, and was considered by many to be a possible contender for the leadership itself...
, a former New Zealand politician, and her nephew Alastair Gair is a competitive Etchells
Etchells
The International Etchells Class is a racing class of one-design sailing boats.-History:In 1965, Yachting Magazine launched a competition to select a new three man Olympic keelboat. E. W. "Skip" Etchells, a boat designer, builder and sailor, was interested in the competition, but refrained from...
racer. Her father was a long-time Member of the Parliament of New Zealand
Parliament of New Zealand
The Parliament of New Zealand consists of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives and, until 1951, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The House of Representatives is often referred to as "Parliament".The House of Representatives usually consists of 120 Members of...
(1966–1990) and later Mayor of North Shore City (1995–1998). Her mother is Fay Gair, and her elder sister Linda Gair served both as a model and as a painting assistant in several of the paintings in her first book. Linda also has a daughter named Lauren. One of the paintings for which Linda assisted was the cover of Paint A 'Licious. Gair also has an older brother named Warwick.
External links
- Gair's homepage
- Gair archive at Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....