Poverty has been one of the world's greatest challenges for thousands of years and a Sydney, Australia based artist and bodypainter is the latest to put a spotlight on the issue, with the assistance of her team of teen models that include some champion athletes.
In a most unusual collaboration the world renown artist Eva Rinaldi organised a somewhat spontaneous Sunday arts exhibit and photo shoot at a secret location favored by many of Sydney's more edgy artists. Hint: lots of abandoned trams and a plethora of graffiti art adorn the walls (and floor).
Rinaldi, who is now known the world over as the Australian artist who is campaigning to bodypaint or create a human statue of famed TV queen and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey, organised the gathering of about a dozen in less that 24 hours, and the end result has already been decided as world class, as are many of her recent expos.
We tracked down Rinaldi for her candid comments on today's most unique happening.
"We are all absolutely delighted with the end result of today's exhibit and photo shoot. We'd been to our favorite little secret location before, but today's result even exceeded my expectations. We were fortunate enough to work with famed photographer Roberto Duran again, and there's no doubt that Roberto's magic with the lends and children helps us all maintain a world class production. I was particularly pleased with both the shots of my son Joseph who is showing displaying his soccer skills as well as our Santa who stumbled across a couple of dogs on the premise who we all thought would make Australian style reindeer. With Christmas and all coming up we thought why not, and now many of our friends and associates can expect early Christmas cards and even customised postcards, and that also includes you Oprah, because I've got a strong feeling your reading our articles and your pending visit to Australia nears. Today was certainly a highlight in our year that included hundreds of exhibits, and we all can't wait to do more, with a return visit to beautiful Bondi Beach coming up in a week or two."
Rinaldi's exhibit today entitled 'Children Help Poverty', went for a marathon 5 hours all told. For the uninitiated some of the elements that go into a happening such as this include talent management, paint preparation, logistics, media, briefing the team and a lot of post and pre production follow-up.
The models and their respective messages painted on their bodies today were: Michelle Bonserio 'Tennis has given me soul' (Martina Navratilova), Kayleb Cantali 'Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong' (Muhammad Ali), Joseph Rinaldi 'God gives us all special gifts' (Ronaldinho), Micky Grujevski 'Music can change the world because it can change people' (Bono), Antonio Bagnato 'All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up' (Pablo Picasso), and 5-year old Tommy Grujevski 'There is a real Santa'.
As you can imagine a great deal of fun and inspiration was had by all, young and old, and the team remains extremely optimistic that the happening will help keep poverty awareness front of mind.
Rinaldi has been a passionate campaigner on issues such as poverty for the better part of a decade, and shows no signs of slowing down as Winfrey and other famed global social and communities are set to hit Sydney shores over the coming months.
Early next month interested persons will have the chance to witness Rinaldi's 'Joy's World' TVS television appearance which also features a song about her desire to paint Winfrey by the talented singer songwriter team of Kat Ferguson and Kay Fallico.
Based on Rinaldi's recent creative arts efforts and results it appears likely that she will continue to achieve her dreams and aspirations, while also giving those of her team and associates a sporting chance.
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Eva Rinaldi
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