Leaving the Air Force to grab a brush and become the first bodypainter of Colombia.
After three months cinema outings, iced coffees in town, kisses and the natural in a courtship, she agreed to get naked to be dressed with paint. It was the first work of a former lieutenant of the Armed Forces who today remembers his time in the military as very different to the color of your current occupation, body painting monochrome era.
In the world he is known as bodypainting and here in Colombia until recently they were associated with fancy makeup, whose quest is more commercial than artistic. A little closing his eyes, moving his hands as if an imaginary brush, Giovanni Ortiz initiator of body painting as an expression that goes beyond the usual touch of fashion show or advertising calls itself. In fact, recognizes that the act of painting the body with a specific meaning is as old as the legend of El Dorado, "Those were bodypainters".
It fits in the chair and continues, from indigenous gold plated British undoubtedly the pioneers in the form of "painting by zones", ie in working face, torso, back and legs separated.
The other category is where you feel more skill costumes. Search erotic body painting dress has led him to try matador costumes, which claims to have succeeded yet, although it has tried three times with different models - Police and seaworthy for two waiters in a gay bar, medieval warriors, bondage girls and he likes, comic book characters.
Ortiz explains who can design an entire body in four hours, although his record for an advertising campaign was six makeups in six hours. For the work that has received greater financial reward has been a painting of a single tone for Coca-cola and ensures not been consecrated as an artist. Separate advertising commissions with conceptual exploration and rejected offers for him desprestigiarían art, like an athlete who wanted to paint the limb and trunk of an elephant. He laughs at the story and decides to draw the line between pornography and erotica with a simple phrase: "If you do not find nudity morbid, I am satisfied with what I do"
In Colombia there is only one supplier of paints that do not harm the skin, and only has five basic colors, unlike the UK or US, where you can find more than five thousand variations. The company is called Masks and was founded in 1990, specializes in photography, film and television, and meet the demand of the growing number of artists who explore the body as a form other than a wall or canvas. On its website the contemplated as artists, but Fantasy, something still closely associated with the world of the catwalk. But this categorization is not the only obstacle.
Many are forced to change their designs for the lack of shade, or a few, very few, like Ortiz, have decided to contact chemical engineers to start producing his own paintings. The practice is still young and little recognized, the only contest that took into account, then stopped for lack of candidates or proposals for innovation in the usual. There is the World Championship makeup Austria, held annually, but for logistical reasons the work of Colombian -enviado in picture format - only has been honored with mentions of participation; it requires the presence of the artist and his models wearing designs to win.
