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Joanne Gair

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Joanne Gair is a world-leading make-up artist and body painter. She is a master of trompe-l'œil, a French term for an art style that tricks the eye.

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Gair often refers to herself as an illusionist or an image-maker. This is because her work changes how people perceive the human form. Her art can make skin look like fabric, stone, or clothing. This skill has earned her respect in both fashion and fine art. She uses her talent to help others express their artistic visions.

The process of creating these illusions is incredibly detailed. For some major projects, models must sit still for thirteen hours.

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Gair often works with a team of make-up artists to apply the paint. In some cases, she also acts as the photographer and scene arranger. She once painted an assistant to look like stage curtains. This allowed a model in a pink tutu to appear as if she were on a golden stage. This level of detail is what makes the painted items look real.

Gair's career includes many distinct types of work. She began as a make-up artist in the rock and roll world. She worked on album covers and music videos for artists like David Lee Roth and Tina Turner. She also worked extensively in the fashion industry with brands like Versace and Chanel. Later, she expanded into body painting to express her own artistic vision. This led to her becoming a photographer of her own body paintings. She has even published books documenting her masterpieces.

Born in New Zealand around 1958, Gair grew up in Auckland. She is the daughter of George Gair.

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In 1977, she began her career teaching dance at a primary school. She eventually moved away from home and lived in Australia and Amsterdam. She arrived in Los Angeles during the 1984 Summer Olympics. After obtaining a work permit, she offered her services to beauty salons. She soon became so famous that people often asked if her father was the child of Joanne Gair.

Her fame reached a peak with the 1992 Vanity Fair cover of Demi Moore.

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This piece, titled "Demi's Birthday Suit," is a famous example of modern body painting. It was a commemoration of a photo from August 1991. The shoot was very complex and required multiple houses and hotel rooms. Gair also has a long history with Sports Illustrated. She worked on the Swimsuit Issue from 1999 to 2017. In 2001, she helped create a goddess theme for the magazine. She painted models to look like Athena, Aphrodite, and Diana.

Specific numbers show the scale of her influence. In 1997, a GQ cover featuring Gair's work reached 425,000 subscribers. A different version of that cover went to 300,000 news stands. Gair has also earned several professional awards. She won a Music Video Production Award for her work on the Nine Inch Nails video "The Perfect Drug." She also won awards for her work on Madonna's "Frozen." Her work has been featured in many major magazines like Vogue and Rolling Stone.

Gair's inspiration comes from many different cultural sources. She was originally inspired by the facial skin adornment of the Māori people.

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She also drew ideas from Indian mehndi and white-face geishas. Other influences include heavy metal rockers and Native American Indians. Her work connects various traditions through the medium of paint. Through her books and photography, she shows how art can transform the body into a living canvas.

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