Ugly

Did I tell you about how I make a point to decorate my beauty school mannequin heads' faces? I've used ballpoint pen, acrylic paint, and nail polish so far. And one safety pin.

This takes the personalization and anti-theft process to the next level. Anyone else couldn't get far with one of my heads and get away with it.

Did I also mention that I am a face painter with respectable experience as well as an educated artist?

When I paint my own face and also when I have my heads around I forget the faces look different and am surprised when people notice. I'm pretty sure I don't do it for shock value but I could be wrong. I think I do art because I want people to see it and like it and I don't get to show my 2D art on a daily basis.

That pretty much sets the scene for today's little "event."

I happened to be working on one of my mannequins on the salon floor near my classmate and her client. I talked a little with both of them cheerfully and was excited about this new narrow curling iron I was trying.

Then I hear my classmate saying, "she actually does them herself."

I look up and the customer looks at me and says, "oh, I was just telling your friend I think your heads look kind of ugly."

I had 4 heads down there so she had an adequate sampling.

I look at her and say, "that's okay, most people don't understand my art and I'm okay with that." And as an afterthought, "the heads look pretty scary without paint too anyway."

With that, I start packing up to go to lunch.

I glimpse my stack of business cards looking up at me from behind some hair tool in my Mary Poppins bag of hairdressership and am struck with a blessed, blessed idea.

"Ma'am, here's my card. It has my website on it and you can go on it and see if you like any of my other art. I do makeup and photoshoots too so you might be interested in that."

That bitch.

Needs to work on her:

Tact

Word choice

Filter

I breeze on toward the lunch room and shoot my classmate a sly look.

It's true that very few people understand my art. And that makes me wonder if I actually make good stuff. But I like it. And I'm pretty sure people tend to not understand the better artists of their time.

Just saying.