Body Painting Gallery ML Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary

Story, modeling by Cassie Hepler

Gallery ML is Philadelphia’s premiere fine art body painting gallery inspired by artists Lawren Alice, Noah Musher and Tom Lovelund. The gallery is the only art space in the United States that features various professional body painting artists. With heavily diversified artistic backgrounds, this creative crew has made a significant dent in the art community and continues to draw some of the world’s best and most unique body painting artists.
Lawren Alice is an award winning body painting artist who is not only an important part of the gallery, but also close friends with Tom and Noah. With a background in graphic design and face painting, Lawren decided to enter a large competition in Orlando, Florida called Fabiac. She had never attempted a full body painting competition before but went home with a third place trophy. Her work continues to impress and inspire other aspiring artists. Lawren just recently returned from a body painting convention in Jamaica where she was highly sought after for her creative skills.
Noah Musher and Tom Lovelund are University of the Arts graduates with photography degrees. This love of capturing moments in time lead them to FABBULAS, Philadelphia’s body painting convention. The pair met world famous body painting artists Nick and Brian Wolfe, Pashur House, Mark Reid (and would later meet Lucy Brouillard and Roustan to add to the list) and were invited to the North American Body Painting Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The gentlemen were awed and drawn to the body painting culture of artists sharing, caring and pushing each other to grow artistically and internally, while capturing one-of-a-kind body painting art on digital film. Commercial photography and videography are also a creative outlet for the gallery owners with Noah currently working on a new documentary directed by Don Argott (the director of “Rock School” and “The Art of Steal”). Tom finds creative inspiration in Daguerreotypes, the oldest form of photography dating back to 1839 in southern France, as well as playing guitar and mandolin, dabbling in glassblowing and photography equipment repair services.
With all this artistic talent brimming under the surface, it was only a matter of time before the trio stumbled upon the perfect space for an art gallery at 126 Market Street in Center City, Philadelphia, Pa. To further expand the artistic endeavors and extend invitations to the community, the gallery is also interested in renting the space to fundraisers, photographers, comedians, comedy troops, performing artists, poetry readings and of course, body painting workshops. Gallery ML would also like to reach out to restaurants, cafés, coffee shops and the like to further display this amazingly intricate style of art to the city and beyond. Gallery ML’s plan and purpose is to be the best place to go to see the world’s best body painting art – where art enthusiasts all over the world can recognize it as fresh and worthwhile. The style the gallery is encouraging are pieces that are family friendly and use the body as a canvas – one of a kind pieces that will leave the viewer full of wonder, intrigue and questions.
Follow them on Facebook to see what’s up next! The next First Friday event and exhibition is set for May 6, you will be amazed! Check out this video for a preview of what to expect: Gallery ML one year anniversary

And yes, I am in there as well as a gaggle of my friends too. Speaking of getting into things, here are some pictures from the body painting workshop I did with the international body painting champion Lucy Brouillard.

The body painting was done by two artists, one on the front and one on the back with Lucy helping out at the very end. I was standing for approximately 4 hours straight and would take quick walkabouts and a lunch break. The process was intense yet productive and a sense of artistic accomplishment soon caught on for all of us. I was determined to see the artists complete canvas come to life – and that was me! One of the artists was saying in the video above (see the link above) that she tries to use the energy from the model and the artists alike. These ladies were spot on as I have always been a lover of Salvador Dali and used to have the same painting in my bedroom as a teenager. The woman dreaming on my back is sleeping with a black cat which I have – it now belongs to my mother, his name is Vladimir. And the universe on my legs has always been a fascination for me… stars, space, the galaxy as an endless romance. The ants on my face are a continuation of the Dali piece, one I used to have nightmares about, being strapped down with ants covering my whole body and biting me. These ones were obviously more friendly – and metallic to boot! I will be doing more body painting sessions with the friendly folks at Gallery ML in the future and can’t wait to see what more is in store … the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades baby, yeah!