Pashur at Outsidelands 2013

Held in the famous Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Outsidelands is a 3 day music festival, with a killer line up! The festival was so amazing that you quickly forgot about the chilly weather! One of the really cool things going on involved painters through out the park working on massive murals, sponsored by Juxtapoz magazine. Painting in a place surrounded by art and music, makes for a great weekend!

Over the course of the 3 days, I had several people return each day to get painted by me, it felt pretty good! Some of the more unique designs were Monster faces and a dinosaur eating an eyeball. Now if only someone had asked for a monster eating a dinosaur, that was eating an eyeball….oh well, there’s always next year!

During my breaks, I was able to network with other companies, and gain some more exposure for my art. While walking the grounds I saw several other painters - however they didn't have the 2 hour line that I had, so it was nice to know people favored my art! On my breaks and after I finished painting  I got to see bands perform such as... Paul McCartney, NIN, Hall & Oates and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Such an interesting mix, and I enjoyed them all!

While body painting several Red Hot Chili Pepper fans, I told them that the Red Hot Chili Peppers original band name was the Habanero Homies. They all bought it hook, line and sinker. Of course before they walked away, I revealed to them that I was just kidding….or did I?

Two negative parts of this gig were...
Many people were pushing "Save the Earth" vibes, yet most people treated the grounds like their personal garbage can. The second negative was that trash that was littering the grounds came from over priced, underwhelming, disappointing food!

My evenings were spent at the Marriot Marquis hotel -  it had an amazing view of San Francisco from  the 39th floor lounge, The View. You could see the whole city, and what a cool city it is.

Pashur at Sturgis 2013

It was the 73rd Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, and I was ready to paint! Originally my plan was to paint at Hogs & Heifers, but at the last minute they were unable to open, so I ended up painting over at the Glencoe Campground with fellow body painters, Lacey & Dawn.

I was pretty  proud of all of my body paintings, in fact, the Travel Channel interviewed one of my body painted clients, and one of my customers was interviewed and photographed for Buffalo Chip magazine! Not bad for a few days of work!

I had promo models walking around downtown Sturgis to show off the work that I was doing, and they proved to be quite popular!

Many of the customers were blown away at the level of body painting I was doing - and several of them loved the body painting so much that they slept in the body paint and came back the next day for just a touch up.

Lita Ford rocking the venue!

Usually when I body paint, models love music playing in the background. Well, while body painting at Sturgis, I had live music being rocked out in the same room by Lita Ford, Skid Row and The L.A. Guns. So much better than the ipod!!

Skid Row

L.A. Guns

On Wednesday night I made it over to a place called “ Titty Alley,” ( it’s really called that!) an area where biker women flash for drinks and other craziness. Imagine a biker version of Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street. Trust me, when these woman flash, you better be giving them something!!!

During the evenings, The Flaunt Girls, a burlesque type troop,entertained the teeming masses with killer dance moves mixed with some rather amusing cheese-ball comedy.

I was only there for a few days, but what a few days it was!! I heard great music, painted some great art, and had a blast!

Next stop... Outsidelands

Pashur at Lollapalooza 2013

This was my first year body painting at Lollapalooza in Chicago, what a kick ass time! I love my job!

Once I entered Lollapalooza gates in the heart of downtown, it was a rock take over of Chicago with streets blocked off and about 8-10 stages surrounding  the famous Chicago fountain. The Original High 5 Man, a hysterical character dressed in crazy colors and looking like a redneck super hero, was on the scene giving high fives to everyone in sight. Yeah, I high 5’d him, how could you not????

Pashur painting - the long body paint line awaits.

Lucky for me, I was set up right next to a stage where bands were doing small sets and small doses of Q&A - so I was able to hear cool tunes while I body painted and learn a bit about the bands without ever leaving (which was great as I had a crazy long line - see the long line in the pic?). Thankfully I had two cool assistants to keep the line from dissolving into chaos and chat with the patrons while they were waiting to get painted.

Over the three day event I did around 300 small body paintings, ranging from cute to bizarre, including requests such as Unicorns farting rainbows, Bass Nectar elephants, T-Rex spewing a rainbow, a clown eating pizza, an angry fish and a wicked lotus flower. Hey, it was Lollapalooza.

"New Order" playing their epic tunes.

One of the perks during my breaks was that I got to check out a few bands perform on the other stages. I feel lucky to have seen New Order perform several of their classics, along with Queens of the Stone Age, Ellie Goulding, and NIN perform! Not a bad way to spend your break time. The best part was on the last night after I was done body painting, I was able to attend "The Cure" concert and see them rock out for their entire show. It was incredible. INCREDIBLE.

"The Cure" rocking out!

Unfortunately I didn't get to see The Killers, Imagine Dragons or Indie Pop because of how busy I was, but I did get to see two bands that rocked out in the booth I was body painting in. The bands were (1) Wild Cub - who had an 80's retro sound, and (2) ReignWolf - a solo artist with a passion for gritty rock. It poured out of each song. At one point he played the drums, guitar and sang at the same time... impressive.

Food highlights included a hot dog from a place called Chubby Weiners and scoring a free cheeseburger from a chick I painted at another festival! Woo hoo!

Next stop: Sturgis!