‘It’s magic’
Artist paints her body to transform into Superman
CALGARY — Kay Pike stands in front of a giant lit mirror, dabs her brush into a glob of paint and touches it to her skin.
She’ll repeat the motion thousands of times over the next 12 hours as she transforms herself from a willowy blond artist to the dark-haired Man of Steel for viewers following online.
“We don’t talk about gender roles on my channel. In fact, when people say you should paint yourself as Superwoman, I’m like, ‘No. I want to paint myself as Superman,’ ” says Pike, who, when she’s done, looks like she could have been ripped from a comic book panel.
Pike is a fan of cosplay, in which participants wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character from anime, comic books and cartoons, video games or movies. Twice a week, the 28-year-old spends up to 15 hours turning her body into a different character for an Internet audience.
“I’ve been painting my whole life. It kind of comes easily to me, but it’s a lot of practice and hard work too,” Pike said in an interview at her Calgary studio
After sitting as a body paint model for a friend, Pike realized she could still dress up without having to make a costume. “It’s magic.” She posted a video of her first solo effort on Reddit and it caught the attention of Twitch.tv, a U.S. live-streaming company.
Pike started in December at twitch.tv/KayPikeFashion and already has 163,000 followers on Instagram (@kaypikefashion). Her sessions are a mix of reality TV and infotainment. There are contests for signed prints or balloon animals she makes.
She receives a little advertising money, but relies more on donations from viewers and from Patreon.com, a crowdfunding site for artists. There is also cash from her fashion line, which she sells at comic conventions, as well as appearance fees.