Photography first prize
Digital art category –
Griffith Tchen Pan – "Charcoal tree"
Photography second prize
Digital art category –
Di Hodge – "Bruce"
Photography third prize
Digital art category –
Mick Millington "My Shadow"
Photography highly commended
Digital art category –
Di Hodge – "Tree Model on Tree"
Photography highly commended
Digital art category –
Ilia Stakovsky – "no title"
Art of the Body visual art competition winner –
Ellie Neilsen – "Eternal Jade"
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPETITION WINNERS
BODY ART - FACE PAINTING
Competition theme: The Natural World Won by Maria Mormile
Maria Mormile is a body artist from Melbourne who came to Eumundi for the inaugural body art competitions in 2007, Maria returned this year to triumph in the face painting competition.
Maria chose to paint herself rather than a model. Her artwork focused on the balance in nature - birth and regeneration; the life and death cycle, drought and water/ oceans. She also managed to incorporate elements from each grouping of the animal kingdom - mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects.
BODY ART - BRUSH & SPONGE category
Competition theme: The Natural World Won by Jude Spence
Cooroy face and body painter Jude Spence is also a two time Carnivale competition entrant, and won the highly contested brush and sponge category with her piece titled Remembered.
Inspired by Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, Jude set out to illustrate the story of the rainbow serpent, which has two genders. As creator of the rainbow, he is the masculine sun. As an excavator of river beds, and dweller in waterholes and lagoons, she is the feminine earth spirit. And so, The Natural World is Remembered.
BODY ART - AIRBRUSH category
Competition theme: The Natural World Won by Vicki Middleton
Rosemount-based signpainter (who has painted everything from helicopters to helmets to cows as part of her day job!), Vicki Middleton took the honours in the airbrush category with her fabulous frog masterpiece.
Vicki's mastery and attention to detail was exemplified by the texture and tones and her amphibian eyes (tennis balls cut in half and placed under the hair then painted!).
BODY ART - SPECIAL EFFECTS category
Competition theme: The Natural World Won by Heather O'Flaherty
Body artist Heather O'Flaherty of Buderim took out the special effects category with her true work of art entitled Wood Nymph - a combination of nature and imagination, drawing on rich mythological stories, and trees as a symbol of the cycle of natural life. Tree Nymphs, or Dyaids, were known as young, beautiful female spirits within trees, nurturing and caring for the trees in which they resided (Heather's model Kiri had a butterfly nestled on her fingertip branches). When under attack, they would band together with their sisters and fight by moving about, thus confusing their enemies (portrayed by corset breastplate of flowers, lichen and mosses).
In Greek mythology, they were often captured by kings to be their wives - sought after for their beauty, caring nature, longevity and claim of the forests, ensuring a long and prosperous reign for their heirs.
WEARABLE ART Garments had to be made from recycled materials Won by Julie Gardner & Maggie Wretham
Stallholders at the Original Eumundi Markets, Maggie Wretham of Woombye and Julie Gardner of Mapleton are truly the sustainable wearable art fashionistas, having wowed the crowds with their award-winning wearable art creation titled Waste Not Want Not.
Their design inspiration came from a tribal hunter and gatherer concept, along with a New Zealand mayoral robe. The bodies, robe and gatherer's bowl of Waste Not Want Not were adorned with discarded altered black plastic and found shopping bags retrieved from the beaches of Fraser Island. The wearable body wraps were a fusion of spent tea light candle tins, bottle tops, cane toad skin leather, fish skin and op shop old leather jackets; and the tribal shield was fashioned from a broken match stick blind.
ART OF THE BODY - visual art competition Won by Ellie Neilsen
Titled Eternal Jade, Ellie Neilsen's etched image is 68 x 38.5 cm, and is her answer to the male artists who liked to paint men fully dressed and women nude - e.g. Matisse, Manet, et al. Here the slipper is on the other foot. Jade is up to her usual tricks, playing the men off against each other - and very successfully. She is enjoying every minute too!
PHOTOGRAPHY - PHOTO PRINT category Won by Mick Millington
Sunshine Coast photographer Mick Millington scooped the award for the photo print category with his image titled Intense Reflections.
Intense Reflections is a photograph of Maria Mormile painting her own face (Maria won the face painting competition). On review of around 800 photographs Mick took over the two days of the Australian Body Art Carnivale, he says this was one shot that really stood out - despite over 70 in his "first pass of worthy photographs".
The image shows Maria working backwards in the mirror and her intense focus on her complex task. Mick notes that the image has everything in a single shot describing the event, a cleverly selected theme, skill, vibrant colours, the artist, the model, even down to the paint on the finger nails telling its own story. He says incredible dedication is evident in Maria's eyes and, in a spooky way, it relates to the theme.
PHOTOGRAPHY - DIGITAL category Won by Griffith Tchen Pan
Griffith Tchen Pan won the digital category of the photography competition with his image titled Charcoal Tree.
Griffith started photography about one and half years ago after purchasing his first digital SLR camera. He's now a passionate amateur photographer, taking photos in any spare time he has, and then posting his images online. He enjoys the technical side of photography, but also the way photographs can bring feelings and emotion alive. His goal is always to capture the right moment, or to create an emotive moment.
In his image Charcoal Tree, Griffith was inspired by the amazing work of Heather O'Flaherty (who won the special effects category). The piercing eye of the artist's model also captured his attention. Griffith notes that the environment has been a 'hot' topic in recent years; and his photograph brings to mind the possible consequences of carbon pollution to producing growing living 'Charcoal Trees'.
