Lets get to know each other!

Well, I'm fairly new to this forum & don't know everyone here, so I thought it will be nice to know one another & know who is behind that avatar I'll go first!

My name is Yuri I'm a student at Cal State Long Beach University, I'm 22 years young, my major is business management. I have 3jobs besides FP, I'm a lifeguard & a swim trainer at 2 high schools, & I'm also a cosmetology sponsor for high school girls & I work with pregnant girls & drug addicts & abused students. I also volunteer at the homeless shelter & saint Jude hospital for cancer patients. I'm also a Sunday school teacher & I sing. I have no kids, & I have a boyfriend of 4years Ummm I think Thats it! Oh & I LOVE to cook

Who's next??

Hey Yuri like many of us your a busy girl.
I'm Angie my Daughter and I have a face painting and clowning business, I also work 3 and a half months a year at Silver Dollar City at a parasol painter. We use to do the face painting to but when there were cut backs they moved it to a different shop different Supervisor. I'm treasurer at our local clown alley and on the board for our local magic ring and I'm president of the local business association. I'm 47 and my Daughter is 19 and we take care of my disabled Mother and I'm disabled too but I don't let it stop me. I'm single so any great stray guys send them my way.

This is fun! It's nice to hear about the people behind the avatar...

My name is Janna, I'm 23. I graduated from university (Fine Arts) last year. I've been working as a video game artist since then. I work with a team of 4 other guys, we focus on games in the healthcare field - "serious gaming". We make mostly speech therapy games, our main audience being stroke patients and children who need speech therapy. I face paint on weekends.

I live with my boyfriend of 3 years, he's in his second year of Graphic Design.

I love art (drawing, painting, sculpting, not to mention face painting!) and I love baking and cooking. I also love our many pets... I have 4 degus, and my boyfriend has a chameleon, turtle and skink.

I also really like to travel. I've been to England, the Czech Republic, Japan, Mexico, Cuba and various places in Canada and USA so far.

Here are my fur-babies!

hey love this idea..

My name is barb I live in wisconsin with my husband...move from Texas back in 1999. Been face painting for the last 3 years really starting to a light at the end of the tunnel for my business..
I have a degree in merchandising and design..I worked in the apparel industry back in Texas for over 20 years, from sewing in a factory and moving up after college to costing womens apparel...great job great discount on cloths...any way im here in wisconsin now Freezing. but having a great time..Thanks to face paint forum I have meet many new friends and some I met in person at the vegas last year..... I love this forum great people and a great way to learn from each other about the business..
thanks metina and suzy for all you do..

My name is Martha, 52 years old, and I'm an the RN unit coordinator for the OR at White County Medical Center in Searcy, AR. My husband and I have been married for 28 years and we have a daughter (divorced) living in Houston and a son and daughter-in-law who live in Searcy. We have a one year old grandson named Andrew who we adore. We also have two rat terriers that we adore as well.
I got started face painting last year cause our church needed someone to FP for a mission trip. Fell in LOVE with it! I don't yet have the time to turn it into a business (I make a good income in my present job) but could see myself doing this for a long, long time. (Already have a business name in mind and am educating myself through the forum how to start one, just in case I ever get more free time). I've already been asked if I would do parties (turned them down for lack of time). Now have been asked to do a festival which I have agreed to.
I would not have the skills or the confidence that I have today without the generous advise, tutorials, and support of the talented artists on this forum. I thank you all and have grown to think of you as family.
I don't take time to take pics usually but the local magazine is supposed to be covering the festival and they are going to FREAK when they see some "real" facepainting. Nearest people who do anything but cheekart are about 75 miles away.
Again, love you guys!

Love hearing about the people behind the avatars! it is really interesting to see how diverse everyones lives are yet we all love the same thing... FP!!

So my name is Laura, I am 24 years old and live in New ZEaland @ the bottom of the world. I live with my partner and our 3 and 1/2 year old daughter Sophie who is in my avatar. I was studying @ uni but after falling pregnant it was put aside for awhile. I developed severe post-natal depression after having Sophie and only just feel like I am now starting to come out the other side. I hope to one day either train to be a teacher, youth worker, writer for a wedding magazine or run my own children's boutique store....so many things...so little time!!

I LOVE face painting, reading, writing, and crafting.

I love volunteering and I am the area coordinator for our local branch of a national organisation called bellyful which provides free home cooked meals to families wih newborn babies to help take the pressure off dinner time. It is something I really believe because of my after-birth experience.

Like the others above wanna say a big THANK YOU to Metina and Suzy and everybody who participates in the forum! It is a wonderful site and I love jumping on the comp every day for inspiration!...it's very addictive!

hello! I'm Michelle Triepels from the netherlands from a town called Landgraaf. The oldest music festival of Europe is held there, Pinkpop. I'm 39 ears old, married for almost 15 years and we have 2 daughters, Jolie and Robin, almost 14 and 11 years old.

We celebrate carnaval over here in the early spring every year..it's a tradition in the south of the netherlands in particular and Germany, italy and I guess in Belgium too. It includes dressing up and facepainting..I started painting myself at the age of 18...and I saw someone facepainting in a playgarden in 2003 with sponges and good paint. From then on my designs improved a lot and I started buying more and more good paint. In 2009 I bought Funky Faces and Fantasy Cats by Mark Reid and after that I really hit it off! I became a member o a dutch childrens facepainting forum and learned a lot adn starting practicing a lot! I was asked to do a party and got introduced to a company (facepaintstore) nearby and was asked to paint for them. After that Anita pointed out this forum to me and I've been a member since and improving still. I only took 2 workshops by the Wolfebrothers and otherwise i'm selftaught.

I love being creative in general, make clothes, do felting, make art clay silver jewelry and try to lose some weight. i play volleyball in a ladiesteam and we play in a recreational competition and I took up Zumba with my sister.

I finished the (almost) highest form of highschool, but didn't finish the first year in college..was too hard. didn't feel like it. gave up. But anyway, I did various jobs and now I clean houses for elderly people and i find it's furfilling and combinates perfectly with raisnign my kids and combining it with my hobbies. My husband did finish his school and has had a stady job for 20 years now.

I'm Bekah and I'm 18, yep I'm only little, well not really; I'm 5'9" haha.
Art has always been my big thing, I got an A* at A Level art and went on the study a Foundation Diploma... It didn't work out for me so I left, only a few weeks ago... It doesn't make me a quitter. I'm a little obsessive compulsive and a little bit mad but aren't we all?

I'm completely self taught in the face painting field but I've never had a passion for something like I do with this. I work part time (evenings) in Morrisons supermarket as a cashier and take any opportunity to paint.

As some of you already know, I'm religious and don't work on a Sunday. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) If anyone's interested.

I have a 12 year old sister who runs at the sight of face paints and a 16 year old brother who doesn't leave his room unless it's for food! My mum's a Kindle author (http://amzn.to/y6Yl9N)

I don't really know what else to say, I live in a small town in Wales... I used to blog, mainly about makeup. I had a youtube channel for a little while... It's not very good though...

Anyway I think this is a really nice idea!

It is nice to really get to know everyone. I'm Whitney and I've been married to my husband Brandon for 4 years. We have two beautiful little girls. Alexis is 2 and Gracyn is 1. We are a military family and are stationed in Texas right now.

I am attending Liberty University Online to complete my Bachelor's of Psychology and Christian Counseling with a specialzation in Art Therapy. I will be moving on to obtain a Doctorate Degree in Psychiatry once I finish my BA. My end goal is to open a ranch for low income families that need specialized therapies. Equestrian, Art, Sports and all other kinds. I want to make these usually expensive therapies, affordable for all families.

I have always loved art, but face painting was the first time I really committed to creating my own art. It was something that was highly discouraged by my family so it wasn't until I got married that I started painting. Face painting has led me to water color, sketching, and canvas art. When I don't paint, I feel like somethings missing.

And I want to give a huge thanks to Metina, Suzy and all of you! This is a wonderful forum that brings me a great deal of joy.

My name is Lisette, I'm 43 years young! Married and mum of three wonderfull Children. A daughter of 14, son of 12 and our youngest son is 10.
I'm working on a school, kind of a vice-director (don't know the job in english..) for children aged 9-12. I have been a teacher but now I'm coaching and support them to do their job as good as they can. Children deserve the greatest teachers in the world! It's a very nice job, love doing it!
I'm very creative, crafting, knitting, crochet and of couse facepainting!
Only since last year this started to become a real addiction and I'm learning a lot since then!
In october I made myself a website and now people start finding me.
Enough work for me to keep me busy!

I am Martha Robbins, 50 (holy cow) I live in Columbus Ohio with my husband of 22 years and my three girsl (19, 15, 12) but have lived in New Orleans, Houston, Oklahoma City (and a lot of other OK towns.) I graduated from Oklahoma State with a BA in History (Go Cowboys!) and I bleed orange. I have always been artsy, either music (was a flute player for ever) and was in love with make up. Worked for Lancome for years as a freelance mu artist and had a ball doing that before my children were born. I found FPing through volunteering at my kids school, and using the horrible crayons they had. They were just too gross for words, and I figured that there just had to be something better. And here I am. My kids are older now, so I decided to take some time to do something for me, and started my business this last spring. Two of my children have autsim (for now* I understand that the diagnostic criteria is about to change, and all the hard work and therapy we got for them may mean that they no longer actually qualify for insurance benefits because they will no longer be "autistic" because they can speak now and have been trained to look you in the eye...you may hear me pop off a little in the near future about this, so just fair warning... ) I live in a zoo, other than the afore mentioned children, I have a nerotic yellow lab, a geriatric tuxedo tabby cat, a really fat bunny, and a cranky bird. My 15 year old daughter works for me as my tattoo artist (she is my beatiful avitar) and I hope to train my youngest daugher as she gets a little older too. My husband is a great line wrangler, and tattoos for me in a pinch. He works in IT, so he runs my web site (I am so lucky, because I am a computer dunce!) and he is a Sea Bee Comander in the US Navy Reserves.

I love face painting and the forum! I have learned so much from every one and I love that kids always like their lipstick...so much better than when I did makeovers for Lancome-and you don't have to make the sale after you hand them the mirror!

Hey Martha from Searcy, I'm just a few hours north of you. I do know a couple of clowns down in Ark. that face paint. Their on facebook and clown forum, one is Sun Dance and the other I forgot his name haven't seen him on facebook for a while.

Hey right back, Angie. Have been to Branson on several occasions. Nice neck of the woods. Have not seen anyone on the web closer to me than Paragould, AR. Ever time I paint I get the "Where did you learn to do THAT?" or did you have to go to school for it questions. I just tell them about the wonderful folks here on the forum! I love this thread BTW!

Ok,I'll try it but forgive me if my limited English makes it a mess . Hey, I bet you wouldn't do it better in Spanish
My name's Pilar, I'm 39 and I'm from Benidorm,a very touristic town on the Spanish Mediterranean Coast. I live here with my hubby (15 years married) and our two wonderful boys, Iván (6) and Marc (2 in March). I'm not a professional FPer,it's more like a hobby-obsession thingy for me. I never charge for my work but I think,dream and breath FPing. This is why I love this forum: you've helped me to improve my skills ,not to get discouraged, the value of practice and I specially have learnt how generous and kind are the great artists on here sharing their talent.
And I'll tell you one more thing: in the beginning I wasn't sure about beeing able to be part of the forum (I mean, a "Américan forum for professional FPers", what am I doing here?) But now I have realized I don't need a high level of English to be amazed by Kim's designs, or to drool with Rebeca's masks, or to agree with Shanon's common sense , or to enjoy with the newbies' improvements or to smile with everybody's comments!
So thank you Metina and Suzy and everyone who makes this forum a wonderful place to be in!
(PS: Did you understand anything?)

Pilar, I understand you perfectly, both your written words and your heart!

What a great idea. I'm joining in!

My name is Erin and I am from NSW, Australia. I'm 28 and I live with my husband Tim and our 18 month old daughter, Megan. I am a qualified primary school teacher and worked in schools for 7 years after graduating. I left to have my daughter and have never been happier. I don't plan to ever go back to teaching - I don't think it was the right career choice for me.

I've also worked as a freelance makeup artist (and will never, ever be able to use Kryolan again!). I only started facepainting last month and before that I would have said I didn't have an artistic bone in my body! I can't draw to save my life!

I secretly really want to start my own facepainting business but am really scared! So I'm just practising for now until I get my confidence up.

And I am TERRIFIED of moths!

Hi! I'm Diane, from Millington, TN. (Near Memphis) I'm 39 years old, married to my wonderful hubby, Shawn for nearly 17 years. We have two kids, Hailey-13 and Caleb-12.
I'll just let that sink in.
I'm a stay at home mom and I homeschool both of our children. They are in 6th and 8th grades. My son has never been in a traditional classroom, because I started this when he began kindergarten.
I don't have patience with stupid people. Okay, I'm not a patient person, in general. I have issues with bad drivers, and don't hesitate to yell at them. (which I now need to stop doing, because I recently had some window ads applied to my van, and it's probably bad for my face painting business if people see me going off on stupid drivers.)
Moving on.
I wouldn't say I'm very artistic, but that's not true. I used to draw very well, but put it aside sometime in high-school and never picked it back up. What I mean when I say I'm not artistic is that I don't like to try new things, because I don't want to mess up.
That said, I am a singer, and not too bad at it. I sing in choir at church.
I absolutely adore my husband, think he's brilliant, and love that he calls me beautiful, even though I have a mirror and know what I look like naked.
I've been face painting for nearly two years now. I love, love, love it. I love new paints. I love one stroke cakes. I LOVE brushes. I love glitter. I love this forum. I love that there is someplace to go and soak in the advice and wisdom of others who have been exactly where I am, and the privilege and responsibility of getting to pass along what I've learned to those coming in behind me.
Oh. And I am the spelling police.

Hey Ya'll!
I'm Dawnie, and I've been face painting for almost 3 years. Married for 28 years to hubby and we have 3 kids... Jordan is 22 and living in Dallas, Chelsea is nearly 21 and living back home in Mississippi and Savannah is 15 and still at home. We recently moved from South Mississippi (near New Orleans). My husband had been laid off after working for 28 years at Stennis Space Center. He ended up getting a job with Walmart corporate office in Bentonville, AR. We had lived in the same house for 25 years so this was quite a move for us I had really built my business up in the old area and now having to start completely over is rough! Especially since I know no-one here. I think because I knew so many people in the old area it was easy to built up quickly. I was related to, or knew, practically everyone in my town LOL!
We home schooled our kids and I'm still home schooling Savannah, who is also my partner in my face painting business. She is my model and also does the glitter tattoos/art on gigs. She's beginning to learn face painting so I'm hoping I can get her trained quickly to help me to do corporate gigs and festivals here. I had a great partner in MS who continued on with the business there and I miss her terribly!!
We were very involved with our church (hubby was the worship leader for nearly 20 years) and we're still looking for a new church here in the new area. I'm hoping to be able to volunteer some to get going here. I've also ordered a ton of rack cards to put out at businesses.
I love this forum. It's pretty much my only face painting community. Everyone here is so helpful and friendly, unlike other face painting communities I've tried.

This is a great idea. Thanks, Tuli!
Hi, My name is Pat. I'm 64 & still wondering how THAT happened so quick. Married to my best friend, Walter for 43 years, we have 2 daughters & 3 grandchildren. When our girls married Florida boys, we knew we'd move from Boston. When the 1st one was due we came to the sunshine state. We also "adopted" my son-in-law's brother & wife. We're Nana & Grampa to their 2 little ones too.
Marsha, I'm a retired RN & also started facepainting because my church needed someone for our annual fair. Never even occured to me I'd be FP, but really enjoy it. So glad I found the FPF!!! It's a wonderful resouce & so valuble for all of us on so many levels! BTW, now that I know Lisa Joy Young is going to FABAIC next May in Ft Lauderdale...I'M GOING! anyone else?

Hi Everyone...
My name is Pam and as an old co-worker of mine used to say...I have celebrated the 17th anniversary of my 29th Birthday!... In 4 years, my oldest daughter will be the same age as me!..... lol. I also have a 14 year old and an 8 year old. My husband and I have been married for 17 years. I am a Social Worker at an Independent living facility for senior citizens. Before that, I was the Associate Dean of Enrollment for a Pittsburgh University. I have been face painting for about a year and a half, but I just purchased insurance and made it official in December. I have always had a creative side, but never figured out how to express it until now. I love painting, and now my 8 year old wants me to buy her some rainbow cakes so she can paint too. I love this forum and have learned SO MUCH from all of you!

Hey Dawnie, your another neighbor to the south of me. If you come visit Branson give me a holler and if it's after May I can get you SDC tickets. Same offer for Martha from Searcy.

Hi I'm Kumi from Okinawa Japan! Im not very good at writing in english because I'm japanese... but i'd just like to say that I appreciate all of you sharing your skills and ideas. Im really happy to be in this community. (My daughter helps me with checking my sentences so they come out right)

I have two daughters ( 13 and 17 year old ) and my husband is a US Marine.

Hey Angie! Great to meet another face painter in the area!!! I'd love to meet you and LOVE to take you up on the offer... never been there but would love to go!

Thanks Angie! I would love to meet you. You seem awfully nice.

Hey All,

I'm Lorie McLelland from the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Vancleave (just outside of Ocean Springs). I am 55, married for 20 years, and have one recently graduated home-schooled 17 year old daughter who does my glitter tattoos. I have worked for 36 years as a radiology medical transcriptionist for a local hospital (work from home) and have been face painting for about 2 years now. I also do pet portraits on rocks and turkey feathers (10 years) and got into face painting when my family complained of hauling rocks to and from craft shows and festivals, lol. I started researching face painting and found this forum and all the beautiful works of art. I've almost stopped completely painting my rocks and feathers, but am addicted to face painting now! My daughter aspires to be a make-up artist. My husband is a horticulturist at a nearby golf course and also works as a janitor for the Ocean Springs Library. One of these days I'll retire and paint full-time! Thanks for all your inspiration!