by Bryan Gibel

Daily Lobo

Jackson Pollock once said a painting has "a life of its own."

Artists at the annual U.S. Body Painting Festival gave new meaning to that saying last weekend, producing paintings that were alive and breathing - and almost totally naked.

Pashur, an artist at this year's festival, said painting a nude body gives life to his art in a way that can't be achieved through any other medium.

"If you look at Picasso's work, you see it and walk on," he said. "With body painting, you can't take your eyes off it. My work comes alive on a canvas that's alive."

Co-producer Loretta Kava said the festival, which was held at the Embassy Suites, is the only one in the U.S. that focuses solely on body painting.

Now in its second year, the festival attracted 32 artists from across the United States and Canada, said founder and producer Pam Trent.

Trent said about 450 people attended the three-day festival.

The competition has three categories - air brush, brush and sponge, and a multimedia special effects category.

The winning artist in each category earns a $500 prize. Second place gets $300 and third gets $200.

This year's theme was

Halloween, and human canvasses - wearing only thongs and pasties - modeled paintings that were eerie and erotic at the same time.

Candice Aguirre modeled in last year's festival and returned this year.

Aguirre said she liked the process of being transformed into a human work of art.

"It's fun," she said. "You don't feel like you're naked. Standing around in a thong and pasties can be intimidating, and the artist gets to touch you places not everyone gets to. But they're really good about placing us with artists we feel comfortable with, and I love getting painted."

On Saturday, artist Dr. Skull spent six hours transforming Aguirre's body into a multidimensional collage called "Mad Science."

Equal parts tiger, zombie and futuristic robot - sewn together at seams dividing her body into sections - Aguirre was startling and stunningly beautiful.

Dr. Skull has worked as a make-up artist at Universal Studios for eight years. He said painting Aguirre's curves and contours gave him an artistic freedom he could never achieve working in the movies.

"There I have to fit their production needs," he said. "Here I have full artistic control. All they wanted was that I stick to a Halloween theme."

Mary Wig, who had never attended a body painting event before, said she plans on entering next year's competition as a model.

"I liked the creativity and different designs," Wig said. "It was spectacular. I'm still

in awe."

Bill Howard, who said he will enter the competition next year as Wig's artist, said he can't wait to get started.

"I think it's a great medium," Howard said. "It's an incredibly creative outlet. They're a living palette. It's intriguing."

Kava said body painting is not inherently sexual, despite many spectators' obvious attraction to the human bodies on display.

"We try to keep it very tasteful," she said. "We want to move it to an accepted form of fine art. In five years, I want this to be a class at UNM."