Atomic Gorillaz

LUCIANO PAESANI
I have been in love with art since I was a little kid growing up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Most kids would get in trouble for doodling with crayon on the wall or furniture in their house; but unlike their parents, my late father saw my passion and always spent his limited amount of money buying more and more materials, always encouraging me to keep creating. Art has always been in my blood, so it was no surprise to my family when I decided to attend Escola Panamerica de Artes (art school in Brazil) where I later graduated with a degree in my passion, painting. At first, I explored oil on canvas, but the smell of turpentine that lingered in a room would always get to me, so I changed to acrylics on canvas. To this day that smell gets to me, but it reminds me of where I started. Later, I started working on advertising agencies; this was before computer graphics existed, so all the ads were drawn and painted by artists for the clients to approve before the final photography. It was very different than it is today! Once I felt comfortable with making the switch to acrylic paints from the awful smell of the oils, I concentrated on developing my own style, and creating my signature. Then about eleven years ago I first saw an advertising that used body painting as the main catch. When I saw that, my jaw simply dropped. It was love at first sight! For me, really understanding the full meaning of being a body painting artist took some time. It is much more than painting a living, breathing canvas, but the respect for that person you are painting and level of care you need to have for the model while they stand there for a long time, sometime upwards of seven hours completely still. It is also a connection with other people on a level most don’t have a chance to experience.
At the age of 20, I moved to Long Beach, and it has been my home for 22 years. I have traveled to many places, even own property in different countries, but something always brings me back here. I love the sound of the fog horn in June, the smell of the ocean, the feel of a small town even though Long Beach is a big city; but perhaps what I love the most are the people in Long Beach. Always friendly with a welcoming smile on their faces, and plenty of artists and art lovers to keep inspiration and motivation high! Personally, Salvador Dali was a huge influence on for me. I remember thinking “Wow! All of that comes from his head!! Maybe I am not the only weird one after all!” It was easy to see as an artist that we see the world with different eyes. We see the details and amazing colors in the simplest of things. The world is a much more beautiful place when you can see it through the eyes of an artist. It is always fun to distort reality a bit and paint it with bright, bold colors!
In my business of body painting at Paesani Designs I have done work for many different events. Things like painting Nicki Minaj’s dancers for the VMA, and a rock band for the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. I’ve painted people for parties in places like the Playboy Mansion, model portfolios, and many regular everyday people that simply wanted to have themselves painted for a photo shoot. I paint models alone or couples becoming one as a piece of art. At the end, what pleases me the most is to see the smile on the client’s face when they get to see themselves transformed. I feel like I have achieved my goal of bringing a little bit of happiness and color to the world.

APRIL GRANADOS
Hailing from spectacular and geographically-accessible Rialto, California, April grew up desperate to improve the looks of those appearance-challenged masses she encountered. She sought out her tutelage every way she could, graduating in certificate programs from the Marinello School of Beauty in cosmetology, the Ruby Makeup Academy in beauty and character makeup, and from the Fab Glam Fierce Makeup Studio in air brushing and face painting. Then she took her skills on the road and quickly became the lead makeup artist at the Lewis Family Playhouse for shows such as Dr. Seuss’ Musical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Peter Pan, Cabaret, and Cats. Unsatisfied with these achievements and theatrical budgetary limitations, she sought to explore more facets of her art, and began working in the special effects industry, and lent her various arts to a variety of commercials, music videos, and short films, while learning how to sculpt, mold, and cast in a variety of new mediums blenders, prosthetics, masks and other SFX secrets too numerous to name. She also manages in her free time to perform her face painting at carnivals, festivals, and private events, canoodle with her daughter and fiancé, drive like a maniac, cook like somebody with something to prove, and love like there’s nothing to lose.