The Art of Naked July

With a headline show whose title includes an allusion to a famous surrealist artist, it is not surprising that art plays a central role in the 2012 Naked July Festival at the National Pastime Theater. There are fine art pieces for sale in the theater lobby, a beautiful large hand-painted backdrop in the main theater space, and performers who are “costumed” in nothing more than make-up and body paint. The person who has been directly involved in all of these endeavors is Gary Schirmer, a local artist who has been involved with the Naked July events for the past several years.

Gary Schirmer, shown here during a pre-show body painting session with actor Michael O’Toole, is a working artist and educator who has worked from the human form his entire artistic career. He experiments with multiple media such as chalk pastel, oil paint and oil pastel, ink and watercolor, and mixtures of those media. He combines portraiture and anatomical study with formal considerations of composition and surface treatment. He is the curator of the Naked July fine art gallery in the theater lobby again this summer, and he has assembled a very diverse and visually striking collections of art pieces.

Gary also plays an integral role in the production of References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot since he does the body painting work on four of the actors in the show. His painting work on Virginia Marie (Gabriela) and Michael O’Toole (Moon) supplements the costume designs created by Molly Kral, but his work on Alison Chemers (Cat) and Cameron Peart (Coyote) is even more critical since these two actors perform completely nude except for the painted designs he applies before each performance. In the sequence of photos below showing the painting process on Alison Chemers, Gary uses a series of French curve templates and an airbrush to create the soft and sensual shapes that are fitting for the domestic housecat character that she plays. The pastel colors applied by airbrush and standard paint brush add to the visual effect.

Schirmer uses a different approach and a different set of painting templates when painting Cameron Peart. Her character is the Coyote, a creature of the wild who survives in the harsh desert environment, and so the painted designs here are more angular with a brown palette to suggest the natural colors of the desert. In this sequence of photos, you can see the progress of the painting process from the beginning until the final touches are applied.

When you see the performance of References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, you will also see Gary Schirmer’s work on the NPT stage since he painted the large backdrop that is seen throughout the show. It is original work that took many days to complete. The photos below show the painting work in progress.