The World Body Painting Festival

I suspect it began, like most acts of greatness. As a random thought, a silly thought perhaps
“Wouldn’t it be cool if….”
Perhaps it was born out of the desire to meet women, the driving force behind many of the accomplishments of men.
Regardless of the details of its conception, the World Body Painting Festival is getting ready to celebrate it 20th anniversary. In those 20 years it has matured and grown into a global movement.
It is the heart of a global creative community.
We live in a world, we are told, defined by terror, tyranny and mayhem. A hopeless fractal of injustice, inequality, scarcity and upset. With no intention to diminish the personal and communal plights that exist in our world.
I would like to assert this global creative community, our community, steadily growing, is changing the world. Celebrating creativity and humanity, national boundaries and language are not barriers in our world. We are global citizens. Though these are competitions, competitive and judged, our hands are extended, bearing witness to inclusiveness and cooperation.
My immersion in the Body Painting World grew out of a chance encounter on a dirt road in the woods of South Carolina. Within twelve months that seemingly random meeting led me Portschach Austria for the World Body Painting Festival.

Body painting is one of the oldest forms of human self expression. Our earliest ancestors used pigments made of white clay, red ocher and charcoal to decorate the human body. Meanings obscured by time. Sometimes ceremonial, sometimes adornment, sometimes for no other reason that just to do it. Ancient cave paintings, the recent discovery of a 9000-year-old Neolithic carved bone flute, in what is now China, tell us that humans have been seeking meaningful self expression since the development of our pre-frontal cortex.
And now, in the modern world, the resurgence of this art form is knitting a global community together.
In my 5 years’ involvement I have met amazing and creative humans from all over the world. Artists, models and all the people whose efforts and support allow these competitions’ to occur.
I recently realized the degree my life has been changed as a result of this art form.
“But It's naked bodies!”
“Yes, it is, we all have one”

As I write this I am sitting in the artists painting area at a World Competition in Greensboro North Carolina, slightly to my left, I observe a model and an older couple chatting. The man, his wife and the model were talking about her experience of being a model. What it is like to be painted naked in public, the arduous nature of standing still for so long. The details of eating and using the bathroom. Here are three humans, under any other circumstances, that would never have had an interaction. They were connected in that moment. All vulnerable, exploring new territory. That connection born out of courage and a longing for community. Driven by the fundamental nature of humans to create and connect.
Early this morning, or late last night, I sat with a group of friends, artists and models. To my right is an artist and a model from Romania. To my left an artist from Siberia, across the table is an artist from Venezuela now living in Amsterdam. We are all sitting in the loft generously shared as a pop up Inn. We are in Reidsville North Carolina.
Siberia? Seriously?
Is not Siberia where one sends people they never want to see again? The coldest most distant place on earth? We joke about that, and, yes, it is the place of her birth.
What are the chances that any of us would have met? Under what other circumstances would that have been possible? And yet, here we sit, drinking, laughing and talking, connecting.
All these human threads pulled from across the globe, woven together to create this fabric of creativity and friendship. All of the threads sourced in the World Body Painting Festival.
I have come to appreciate that all this exists as a result of the work and commitment of many humans.
That being said, this is my acknowledgment of one man, the heart of this global community,
Alex Barendregt.
His vision, his persistence and focus. It is my hope that he feels the well earned pride of this achievement.
This community he has gathered and nurtured, that he is the heart of.
This is my thanks to him for filling my life in unimaginable ways with love, community and creativity.
Thank you Alex, for connecting humans across the globe.
Thank you for your tireless pursuit of exposing the goodness and creativity of the Human Nation.

I am clear, the logistic scope of an event of this magnitude , in addition to everything else life brings, makes the time of his life fly by. It is my hope that Alex Barendregt can pause for a moment and feel a sense of pride in himself.
I do understand it is the tireless work of many that delivers this festival each year. And, no sooner does this year’s festival end in July, than the work begins for the festival next year.
The World Body Painting Festival has a life of its own. And still it must be nurtured with love, commitment, passion and lots of hard work.
Thank you again Alex, for being you, and for your vision that connects the world in a profound and meaningful way.