Masks and Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is coming up later in the month (Feb 21st) and already events are themed for it.  I painted a couple of ladies yesterday morning for a bonspiel which had a Mardi Gras theme.  And there were New Year events that were Mardi Gras themed too.

Yesterday I painted at a stagette and masks were the main request.  I don’t take along examples for this type of party.  Most of the women have a pretty good idea of what they want or don’t want and tell me.  I ask them what colour, or match their clothing or jewelry or shoes, and then just paint whatever seems to form from my sponge or brush.  I don’t really think about it; just go with the flow.

Liquid Bling is a main requirement of any mask work, IMO.  I go through gold bling like crazy.  I actually need more after last night’s gig.

Here are some masks I’ve done by appointment recently.  The peacock was copied from a photo she had of an actual mask.

Yesterday was busy.  I had two ladies come over so I could paint Mardi Gras masks on them (the two bottom photos above), then I had a Princess and the Frog birthday party, and then the stagette in the evening.  And, to make it even more of a workload, we ended up with no care aide for mom for the stagette.

Our regular casual aide wanted to go away for the weekend, so Amy suggested someone who might be interested in some casual hours.  I contacted her and she said she would take the Saturday evening shift, so I told Kenisha I had the shift covered so she made her weekend plans.

Then Friday afternoon the “new” person called to bail on us.  Said she’d decided she was too busy… so, on about 24 hours notice I call the agency I use for back-up (at $30/hour!)… and they weren’t available… crap.  So, I then called a couple of people who have helped out in the past – neither returned my call… so, mom came to the stagette with me.

I wasn’t too comfortable with doing that and the initial plan was that since it was at a restaurant/club we would arrive a bit early, park mom at a table with some food and I would go to the private room and do the 2-hour gig.  But mom wasn’t too happy about that plan and figured I should take her as my brush washer like I do for public gigs.

Which is what we ended up doing… managed to use a beer cart as a table that I could roll mom up beside in a corner so she was out-of-the-way and she washed my brushes.  The girls were really sweet and kept checking to see if she needed anything.  Then when we were ready to leave one of them grabbed my kit and chair and carried them out to the car and loaded them for me too.

I’ll be back at the same club on Mardi Gras painting the staff which is always fun.