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Meet Isabella Mwebaza, The Hands Behind The Body Art You Will Want To Have At The Next Festival You Attend
1.What is your full name?
Isabella Mwebaza Alice but I go by Bella Art
2. What led you to start Bella Art?
During the culture week of the university I was in, The Catholic University of East Africa in Kenya, we had to attend the sports day – where all the different ethnicities and regions in the university were being represented. I was in my friend Laura’s car driving to the event and when I opened the glove box, there was some whitewash along with food colour.
So in playing around, I painted myself, and along with all our friends who were in the car. When we got to the field, everyone else wanted to get painted as well. All the different groups, Nigerians, Malawians, Asians, Rwandan, Ugandans, each wanted their own colour representation in body paint. The whitewash and different food colours worked well enough to give unique colours for each group that wanted in. some people wanted to even pay me but I didn’t even consider it. The photographer who was covering the event shot the painted students and it went up on the school site. From there, the student body demanded that at every event there be a body paint artist. So that’s how I stepped into the role. At the time I didn’t know anything about body paint, so I went out and bought more white wash and food colour, and that’s what I’d use. Fortunately, none of them got any reactions to it, but that’s how I got started. So when I worked on the models at Mr. and Miss CUEA Pageant competition, they wanted me to post them on social media, so that’s how Bella Art started on social media.
Because of how far that event reached, Kenyans started reaching out to me and I got my first gig. I didn’t even know what a gig was, I was an accounting student, trying to follow a conventional career. So when I’d be called for gigs, people would ask, “what kind of paints do you use?” so I started to research about body paint more, so I could upgrade from white wash. I had friends in the U.S, who would send for me the body paint.
3. So is what you’re doing face painting?
I don’t call myself a face painter because what I do is more than that. There’s a difference between face painting and body painting. If you notice I don’t just paint the face, I do arms, legs, other parts of the body. I don’t paint cartoons. I use the unique alphabets; I write messages in my art. It’s
festival art, it’s very cultural, it’s artistic- I worship the whole body. I can do face painting and have worked with the Cancer Institute Mulago to paint cartoons on the kid’s faces.
4. What kinds of alphabets do you use?
I use a lot of the African traditional alphabet and symbols, and I also use Netherlands dialect. Hawaii has a very strong body art culture, with their prints and patterns which also inspires me.
5. Have you found any challenges on your journey?
Honestly, I think I have every weapon and skill to overcome any possible obstacle. Even when things may seem challenging to other people, my brain doesn’t register them as challenges. I don’t take things personal. Dealing with people is the most difficult thing; how some men react to my business and how I’m supposed to run it. some are rude, entitled and offensive, but I don’t give them the opinion that they have offended me. The other challenge is the stigma around it, in fact any art. It is looked at as a career that has no impact on the people. The perspective people have on people who pursue art are seen as useless, but engineers are seen as working(no offense to them). It can discourage you and you need to find motivation as an artist to keep going, somehow.
6. How do you motivate yourself?
You train your brain to identify what opinions you can ignore and be open to those who are open to it. I don’t let any negativity stop me, I know they are just ignorant about it. I’ll leave them be and if in the future they get exposed about the art, well and good. But I can’t let that stop me.
7. Do you do body paint full time?
I used to have a job and body painting was my side gig but now it is the main thing I’m working on. I would leave it to be a side gig if I had a great team but now I haven’t yet built a team that can work with the same enthusiasm that I do.
8. So you work with other artists?
Yes, I do. You know the Ugandan party culture is very welcoming to body painting and such art, so because of that, every week I have a gig. If it wasn’t for me to sometimes say no, I’d have a gig every day, because every day there’s something happening somewhere. Because of this kind of demand, I need to work with other artists. Some of them may not necessarily be body artists specifically, but since they know art they can just switch and use the body as a canvas for the day. Doddridge for example, is one of the artists who can switch from graffiti and fabric art to body painting.
9. What/ who inspires you?
The number one thing is the freedom to create. The freedom to have an idea and bring it to light. It’s addictive. My mom, is another inspiration – women in fact. She’s a strong woman who never gives up; she is unapologetic. There are so many things I subconsciously learnt from her and when I need it, it comes out like when I need to set my standard, when I need to assert my decision. That aspect of her in me comes out and I’m grateful for it. She’s badass! Artists, also inspire me, like Laolu Senbanjo. He’s revolutionary; and many of the things he says I went through.
The boundaries he has broken in taking body art mainstream are things I only hope I can do as well, so even getting booked to work with UBL (Uganda Breweries Limited) is something that I’m so grateful for and I see it going as far as being a household name like Laolu.
Shapes, geometrics, the African tradition. These things inspire me.
10. Is there a particular message that you try to send with your art, as you said you spell out words in these languages?
I’m obsessed with positive things like joy, health, wealth, because that’s even what people are attracted to. I don’t even tell my client that’s what I’m writing, I just do. Only about 2 people have ever asked what I was writing, so I told them. With some of them, because body painting is very intimate, you can feed off a person’s energy. I feel things when I’m painting; it’s never intentional. So sometimes when a person is sad, I feel it. so I will repetitively give them JOY over and over again. I communicate abundance to wherever I feel you’re lacking.
11. Each and every one of your designs is different, every time. How do you come up with something new so consistently?
I’m influenced. It depends on who I’m driving from at the time. I do a lot of research so whatever I am currently obsessed with delving into, I will do. Once I feel I’ve mastered that style, I will move on to something new, and so on.
12. What are your goals with Bella Art?
I want to work with big brands! Breaking barriers to going into more mainstream art, to impact beautifully the people of my community. I’d also love to change the mind-sets of people who are closed towards more creative endeavours. To change the view that people who do artistic or talent based careers aren’t serious, they can also change the world.
You can find her on Instagram and Twitter
satisfashionug@gmail.com
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