Joanne Gair
[9] 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 a make-up artist in the rock and roll world who has helped several of her music clients win fashion and style awards.
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.
[19] 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.
[22] Gair is considered a Trompe-l'œil body painter, but at times she describes herself more generally and colloquially as an illusionist.
[23][24] She was originally inspired to specialise in body painting by facial skin adornment of the indigenous Māori people of her native New Zealand.
[4] 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.
[12][13] 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.
[23] Gair has been the subject of numerous television programs and magazine articles, including what was the highest-rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not?.
[1] In her first year in the Swimsuit Issue (1999), she painted Rebecca Romijn,[25] Heidi Klum,[26] Sarah O'Hare,[27] Michelle Behennah,[28] Yamila Díaz-Rahi,[29] and Daniela Peštová in a variety of beachware.
[33] Gair contributed to this theme by body painting the models as statues 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.
[43] In the 2005 issue, she painted Bridget Hall,[44] White,[45] Miller,[46] Anne V,[47] and Sarahyba with athletic team outfits.
[50] In the 2007 issue, where music was the theme and Beyoncé 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.
[51][52] 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.
[53] The photographers in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2004 were respectively Antoine Verglas, James Porto, Michael Zeppetello and Steven White for the Swimsuit Issue works.
[55] No body painting pictures have been chosen as the exclusive main image on the cover of the Swimsuit Issue.
Among the works included were one called It's a Stretch but You've Still Got It, which shows an older 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.
[60] Her second book, Body Painting, includes seventy-five works and some of the photographers involved were Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts and David LaChapelle.
[61] The book includes many works from Gair's Auckland Museum exhibition as well as selected Swimsuit Issue images.
[62] 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.
The book is subtitled The complete body-painting collection from the SI Swimsuit Issue: The Art of Joanne Gair.
The book also contains stories that accompanied 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.
[64] The book includes images produced in Gair's earlier efforts for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from 1999 to 2007.
[4] 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.
