David Starfire Facepaint Timelapse

And the Award goes to…

Each year, the fan-driven Monday Magazine “M Awards” celebrates local arts & culture leaders with award categories like “Best Local Filmmaker” (Scott Amos!), “Favourite Record Store” (Ditch Records!) & “Favourite Live Music Venue” (Lucky Bar!). And then there was Urbanheart. Monday Magazine reports as follows:

“Last year’s winner of Favourite Emerging Visual Artist, Kristin “Urbanheart” Grant has really made her mark on the visual art scene in Victoria. Widely known for her airbrush body painting, Grant also creates custom canvases and paints windows and walls. One of the highlights of Grant’s work for the 2012 season was Stand Together: Art for the Love of BC, a fundraiser for the Dogwood Initiative’s NO TANKERS campaign.”

What’s next for this amazing, talented, awesome & supercool contributor to our arts scene (and Sunset, in particular)? Well, we don’t actually know the answer to that. What we do know is – you won’t have to wait long.. Kristin is one extremely active artist! To stay up to speed on her artistic magic, visit her website at www.urbanheart.ca.

To read the whole Monday Magazine article and see ALL the winners, go here!

Monday Magazine cover
2012 M Awards Edition
Urbanheart wins “Favourite Visual Artist”
Photo: Louis EyeoftheMind Bockner
Ukelele Addition: Grant McKenzie

Vote for Kristin in the M Awards!

Monday Magazine M Awards Ballot!:
http://www.mondaymag.com/entertainment/193606001.html

It’s that time again! The Monday Magazine M Awards are a huge opportunity for Monday Magazine to recognize the arts, music & cultural community that constitute our local scene. More importantly, it’s a huge opportunity for US to recognize the artists that make our cultural scene so amazing!

And – you would have to be living under a ROCK to not know how much Kristin Urbanheart Grant has kicked ass this year! We’re certain this is why she has been nominated as ‘Victoria’s Favorite Visual Artist’!!

There are a few elements that might make her deserving of ‘Favorite Visual Artist’. First, there is her work itself. Kristin is a mixed-media artist of unbelievable talent. Whether working on canvas, on windows or on bodies – you are going to be blown away. Her passion for colour & complexity always comes through, and her attention to every vibrant detail has her works jump off a wall – or sometimes off a ballet floor – with undeniable boldness.

If the ONLY thing she did in the last year to deserve to be our ‘Favorite Visual Artist’ was her ‘Stand Together: Art for the Love of BC’ art collection, this would be enough. This self-initiated volunteer fundraiser project for Dogwood Iniyiatives ‘No Tankers’ campaign involved more than 30 artists, models & photographers and generated a ridiculous amount of exposure and more than $1800 for the campaign.

Her bodypainting exhibitions were a huge highlight at events including the Moss St Paint In, the Beauty Night Fundraiser (Vancouver), Zombie Walk 2012 and music video projects for Open Sails, Soulfix & Sachika (over 100,000 views!). She has now painted numerous top level music producers including Desert Dwellers, DubFX, Flower Fairy & Smoke Sign. She has also been invited to perform at festivals like Earthdance, Astral Harvest & the Victoria Electronic Music Festival.

Always a generous contributor to Victoria events, she has performed live for Victoria’s Spoken Word Festival, the Stone Soup Community Fundraiser and Top Guns Fundraiser for the BC Cancer Foundation, as well as having volunteered as a live performance painter at Sunset Room, various community weddings, various model shoots with Vancouver Island Models & Photographes (VIMPs) and others!

Just last weekend Kristin volunteered her time to go to ALBERTA for the Big Hearts for Big Kids fundraiser where her donated live painting generated more than $6000 at auction for a kids emergency shelter!

We could go on, easily. We won’t. We hope between her amazing artistic works and her unbelievable community spirit you feel HUGELY compelled to nominate Kristin as ‘Victoria’s Favorite Visual Artist’!

VOTE FOR ‘KRISTIN URBANHEART GRANT’ HERE:
http://www.mondaymag.com/entertainment/193606001.html

Spotlight on Art!: Urbanheart Dezi

The shoot with model Dezi Desire and photographer Patrick Parenteau from Vancouver, was inspired by “gold shooting stars”. Artist Kristin Urbanheart Grant ran with the theme– from golden sparkles, to painted patterns including the star tetrahedron, and crop circle patterns. The blue alien skin and golden glow from another galaxy. The shooting star concept was inspired by Dezi’s bright orange hair and other psi-fi traits.

Urbanheart: www.urbanheart.ca
Dezi Desire: www.facebook.com/ModelDeziDesire
Patrick Parenteau: www.dvpix.ca

the Steampunk Angel

Steampunk Angel :: a collaboration

Shanone Ace Modelling
Doug Gilbert – photographer and graphic artist
Urbanheart – bodypaint, hair, stylist

Another amazing multi-artist collaboration, the Steampunk Angel was inspired by the glass angel hair headpiece that Shannon is wearing. Kristin then designed an angel wing stencil and combined it with industrial shapes and an edgy colour palette. Shannon’s background in dance & synchronized swimming shows up in the beautiful & graceful lines in her poses. The photography and digital layers were created by Doug, who took close up photos of Kristin’s bodypaint design, and layered them with photos of sparkles, bubbles, smoke wings and more.

See some additional images from this shoot here!

Gallery: Erotica Electronica

What a GLORIOUS night!  Frisky fiends & flirty frenzies dominated the all-night dance naughtiness, full of dance & aerial performances, bodypainted beauties, bold burlesque & bumping beats!! The big fan blasted through the dance cage, cooling the heated skin of the provocatively-clad voluntary prisoners, while on the other side of the room Kink Underground offered the opportunity to experience bondage 101 amidst the safety of friends and an equally exploratory community!

Huge thanks to so many co-creators for helping make this night such an experience – big love to Mya & Talli, Kristin Urbanheart Grant, Cadence Fitness, Faery Essences, Lushious Entertainment, Kink Underground, Fire Dance Victoria, photographer Evan Boyd, chocolatier Daisy Faye and an ever-amazing Sunset Room crew! Stay tuned for more Erotica Electronica early 2013… til then, enjoy the pix! xoxo

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Art of the Week: Green Faerie

Canadian bodypainters, photographers and models are Standing Together to create an art gallery show featuring vivid, edgy, beautifully inspired artwork that raises awareness about the risks of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and raises money for Dogwood Initiative’s NO TANKERS campaign. Read more about our cause: http://dogwoodinitiative.org/no-tankers/

This piece entitled Green Faerie highlights model Nina Faerie Hirlaender, painted by Urbanheart and captured by Nicole Brown Photography.

“Now is the time to remember the spirits of nature. Beings of the mountains, ocean, wind and trees are our companions in this time of planetary transformation. …Be still and awaken to the gentle light that reveals the beauty of our ancient belonging. Listen for the message whispered on the winds, calling us to reclaim our place as lovers and stewards of the land. As we remember who we are, our hearts begin to unfold the promises we have made and our realities begin to illuminate with endless possibility.” -Nina Faerie Hirlaender

The final group show will be November 28th at Discovery Coffee Oak Bay (1964 Oak Bay Ave), from 7-9pm, featuring live bodypaint exhibition, music and a showcase of the printed works. You can also purchase these prints online until December 30st!

Join us for the event!

Desert Dwellers Urbanheart Timelapse

Art of the Week: Urbanheart Smoke Sign

Oregon electoronic music producer Smoke Sign played an amazing show in Victoria last weekend at Sunset Room, called Seasons’s Advance 6! The following day Smoke Sign teamed up with Urbanheart and Dodd’s Eye Media for a photoshoot overlooking Sunset Room’s gorgeous view :)

Bodypaint Special by Urbanheart

Kristin Urbanheart Grant is now booking for group bodypaint parties in September! Transform yourselves with bodypaint for photoshoots, video, promo material, parties, performances… or whatever your little hearts desire ♥

Special Group Rate of $50 per person for 2-8 people!

Design your own characters or choose from:
- Zombies of many varieties
- Aliens or Sea Creatures
- Gods & Goddesses
- Corset/ Lingerie
- Tribal Tattoos

Come get painted in my studio at Sunset Room – or I’ll come to you!

Some key elements and considerations for a successful bodypaint experience:
- photographer
- models/ performers
- warm venue with power, light, air flow
- hair
- costume
- jewelry & accessories
- extras like prosthetics, fake eyelashes, nails
- survival kit :)

Please email me your ideas, or to reserve a date!

Lots of September dates available right now, but please book early.
This special rate is good for September Only.
Halloween rates will resume after September 30th.

♥ Kristin Urbanheart Grant