When Irene “Beanie” Sparks looks in the mirror, she often sees a scary clown, zombie or a wild animal staring back at her.
The artist uses skin as canvas and means of expression. Unlike a tattoo, her work can be washed away with soap and water.
Last year, she founded Beanie Paints, a company specializing in body art. With a brush, a sponge and some FDA-approved color, she transforms beautiful faces into hideous masks, pregnant bellies into bouquets and imperfections into masterpieces.
Sparks conducts her magic at fashion shows, film sets, community festivals and private events.
Her work empowers customers, even after it goes down the shower drain.
“I paint a lot of full-figured women,” she says. “Our society makes them feel that their body is not attractive, but after I paint them, they feel gorgeous.”
Sparks recently used her skills to give a group of friends one-of-a-kind outfits before they hit a nightclub. Although the women only wore pasties and G-strings, they appeared to be dressed in jeans and colorful blouses.
The Arizona native is happy to raise people’s self-esteem … and eyebrows … through art.
Her dad was a photographer and her mom was a seamstress. She inherited their aesthetic sensibility. She spent her entire childhood using every medium she could get her hands on — from crayons and markers to fabric and nail polish.
Sparks went on to study cosmetology at Pittsburgh Beauty Academy and spent time as a manicurist, but eventually entered the corporate world to make ends meet for herself and her four children.
While attending a fundraiser, she saw a woman painting a child’s face. The little girl’s expression upon seeing her embellished mug was one of awe. Sparks wanted to generate that same kind of joy for herself and others.
“I picked up a paint brush and started to remember how much I loved it,” she says. “I decided to start doing something that makes me happy.”
Soon after changing her career path, she entered the Face and Body Art International Competition in Orlando, Fla. Out of 100 contestants, she and a partner placed 23rd.
Not all of her creations have a pulse. She also paints murals in homes and businesses. The tropical scene below the counter at Island Spice Caribbean Restaurant in Carnegie took her about five hours to complete.
Sparks hopes to open her own studio, complete with professional backdrops for body art photo shoots and classrooms where she and other artists can teach others. She wants to enhance the city’s beauty, one face, belly and wall at a time.
“I love Pittsburgh,” she says. “It’s been good to me and this is a way I can give back.”
Kristy Locklin is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
