Artists Scott Fray and Madelyn Greco of Reidsville call themselves Team LivingBrush.
The name is apt.
Their canvas is the human body.
Fray and Greco placed second in the "Brush & Sponge" category of this year's World Bodypainting Festival, which took place July 12-18 in Seeboden, Austria. They won nearly $1,100 and an additional $750 to buy more body paint.
They did two paintings on Lauren Andress of New Orleans at different points during the competition, applying designs that Fray had sketched in advance. Each painting explored a different theme. One looked at subcultures; the other at sources of power.
"We're very new to the competing thing," Greco said. "Scott and I have been painting together for about six years. I was drawn to Scott because I saw his body-painting work on a woman at a festival. I chased her down and asked who had done that to her."
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At first, Greco wanted to be painted. But in short order, she and Fray became a team. (They're also engaged.) She attributes Team LivingBrush's success to the attention the two artists pay to the lines of the body.
"A design is wrapping the body in a flattering way," said Greco, 41, who's also known as burlesque performer Foxy Moxy.
"Some people paint on the body as if it were a flat canvass. But the body has contours. We're approaching it with a more sculptor-like eye."
Fray, 45, sees painting on the body as the continuation of a long tradition.
"It's been done by every group of people in every age in every part of world," he said.
"I'm happy to make my current contribution. I see us as part of a long continuum of human expression."
kkeuffel@wsjournal.com
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