Michelle Johnson, from Bowie, Maryland, is a mother of two adult children.
Her professional alias is “The Face Paint Lady,” an unassuming moniker
created by her young clients back in the 1990s when Michelle first began
painting faces as a career choice.
A great way to describe Michelle is by classifying her as a deliberate
artist for the unique way she approaches her business goals and face
painting techniques. Michelle, with innate direction discussed only with
her soul, carefully and precisely styles her hair, chooses clothing to
wear, selects her spoken and written words and decorates faces, bodies and
inanimate objects using flair and style that begins at the root of her
thoughts. From the tips of her signature short, blonde spiky locks to her
hard-and-fast one-cosmetic-sponge-per-child rule, Michelle exercises a
deliberate artistry that is worth exploring
How it All Started
“I began learning Halloween / theatrical makeup in 1988 at Kinetic Artistry
[theatric supplies retail store in Takoma Park, Maryland],” states
Michelle. Michelle planted her admiration for face painting as a small seed
of curiosity, watered and nurtured it through studies and eventually
watched it bloom into a mature plant of popular artistry in 1991, when she
formally began painting faces at a Halloween pumpkin patch at Darrow Berry
Farm in Glenn Dale, Maryland.
Michelle recounts the fateful day in 1995 when she walked into the general
manager’s office at the Bowie Baysox, a minor league baseball team in
Maryland. “[I knew I] got the job when I was asked upon walking in the
door, ‘Who painted you?,'” notes Michelle. She ended up painting faces of
children at 500 Baysox games between 1996 and 2002! Exposure at the
baseball games catapulted Michelle’s business to great heights. She became
instantly recognized as a local entrepreneur who made children happy. From
that moment forward, children dubbed Michelle “The Face Paint Lady.”
Michelle fondly accepted the innocuous title and turned it into her
professional name.
Current Work
After 2002, Michelle continued her winning streak by spreading the love to
other venues. Michelle proceeded to paint faces at museums, public
libraries, corporate and school events and private parties. Starting in
2013, Michelle began painting faces at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant in
Bowie, Maryland and at two different Chick-Fil-A restaurants, also in
Bowie. Michelle has also added face painting at Maryland farmers markets
and a few select festivals to her repertoire.
Michelle is essentially a solo entrepreneur but receives valuable business
help from her adult children. “My son Chad (24) helps me with tech,
brainstorming, focus, mindset and groundbreaking practices … to take
The Face Paint Lady (TFPL) to our next level. My daughter Natalie (20) has
clarified what hashtag use can do when properly implemented,” explains
Michelle. In addition, Michelle has recently formed a group “Guest Artist
Collective” to address creatives and artists she has met in person, and
invites them to collaborate at her large-scale face painting events.
With big plans for the future and her nonstop mind focusing deliberately on
the next stage of her artistry, Michelle recognizes that public demand for
face painting has outgrown her one-person shop. “I am rolling out larger
TFPL-branded events that require a team to run. I am doing this so that I
can sell TFPL apparel, books and seminars that are intended for multiple
generations … [to help people] connect with their own ‘Art Selves,'”
explains Michelle.
Introspection Versus Description
Michelle’s introspection and views of her work is quite humble, resembling
the crops of farmers. Farmers generally plant seeds systematically with
proper spacing and water, weed them continuously and harvest them using
exact tools. The end result is what we see and purchase at markets without
realizing the amount of time, energy and effort that went into those crops.
Similarly, Michelle describes herself and her work using limited words
without going into detail about all she has done to get to where she is
today. “I provide highly skilled experiences and humorous face painting
services to groups large and small,” notes Michelle. Michelle prides
herself on the speed at which she paints faces. “I paint very quickly
… [and ] at private birthday parties [I can paint] up to 22 children
per hour. I am known for my public speed painting.”
It is understandable that Michelle proclaims her ability to paint quickly
as a business strategy to help her customers better understand the value of
her service. However, the speed belies the deliberate artistry Michelle
uses on every painted child and adult, with little room to appreciate the
years of practice and effort that went into perfecting the curves, lines
and nuances of every painted stroke.
In a series of early videos published on Internet site MonkeySee.com, it is
easy to see the proof in the pudding of Michelle’s deliberate artistry. The
videos feature Michelle looking at the camera, speaking intently and
intelligently as she paints while she talks.”Lines are more interesting
when they have variations in width,” says Michelle in one video. That
simple phrase helps viewers understand that, despite painting faces
quickly, Michelle deliberately chooses her lines to match her personal
visions. Interestingly, Michelle outwardly states the opposite, giving
credit to the children themselves. “I recognize that the imagination of
children is what has grown my company,” notes Michelle.
The Future and Social Media
Michelle is enthusiastic about working with new artists to help her meet
the growing demands of face painting. Michelle is also happy that a class
she took from DOODLEtoonz consulting agency in Bowie, Maryland,
Introduction to Graphic Facilitation [also known as Graphic Recording], has
brought a new source of income to her burgeoning career. She also has her
heart ready to address the needs within her community through art-based
fundraisers. Despite the increase in collaborators or the projects she
chooses to do, Michelle remains grounded in her mission: “As a career
choice, face painting is what I came into this world to do. It has been my
door to learning about myself, my family, our world and how childhood is
such a special time.”
Michelle offers only a glimpse of her services on her website: thefacepaintlady.com.
Readers can find a more thorough picture of her deliberate art through
additional sources. She is on Facebook as:
facebook.com/TheFacePaintLadyUS
and Instagram as:
instagram.com/thefacepaintladyus
. She has proudly featured her own face in wildly colorful, imaginative and
unique ways, painted deliberately with exact social messages, and is
inspired by specific works of art on her Twitter account:
twitter.com/facepaintladyus
. Michelle appeared in a children’s camp television segment “In the
Community” on NBC4 in January 2018. She has videos of her applying alien
makeup on a child which appear on MonkeySee.com. Michelle’s unique work
with “200 Tigers” was featured online in a Patch.com news story.
