Breasts Out West
Art meets art
Jiggly giggles abound on this crisp winter’s day and with only the sun to kiss our skin, we smear body paint over our torsos. This is not the scene for some titillating fantasy, although the guy “working” on his roof next door may dream otherwise. We’ve gathered here today to celebrate the female form and to raise awareness for breast cancer by creating art with our breasts.
Breastique Art is the brain child of Shiona Herbert, “I came up with idea during my housewarming party when a group of arty types got crazy with a canvas and some paints in this very courtyard.” This heady event lead to evolution of Breastique Art where workshops are run for the enthusiastic novice to the connoisseurs of boob art. Workshops are also becoming popular for alternative hen’s nights, pregnant bumps and baby showers.
The workshops are liberating, fun, and a little risqué. It’s an intimate moment as each woman disrobes in her own time and the instant she pulls her breasts away from the canvas is magical. The “big reveal” is as much as surprise to the artist as it is to her comrades.
The paintings themselves are predominantly abstract which suits the very nature of the process. The experienced create more defined shapes like vases of flowers, the human body, and fruit, especially the round fleshy variety. Shiona demonstrates one painting technique called the mash by rubbing the canvas with her colourful breasts as you would mash up potatoes. Breast art has its own terminology like a nipple switch (the nipple is rolled onto the canvas), a press-up (a full-on push into the canvas), a pucker (pucker up your nipple to kiss the canvas), and a shimmy where you shake it like you’re Dita Von Tease. The brisk wind blows up some nipply results.
Local Perth businesses are welcomed to become part of Breastique Art’s Maximum Exposure Exhibit by displaying a piece of this unique art on their premises. The proceeds of any sales are donated to the Breast Cancer Foundation of Western Australia.
For more information and workshop bookings go to www.breastiqueart.com
