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 Monday, July 9, 2007 11:17 AM CDT |
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Face painter trades talent for cheap cruise
BLOOMINGTON -- Mickey Lower wasn't much of a traveler before she packed her paints and brushes and took a cruise last winter. But, friends are going to have a hard time finding the recently retired home economics teacher at home from now on. Lower, 56, has discovered a way to set sail without sinking her bank account. All she has to do paint a few dozen faces each day to earn her berth onboard. Known as the "zoo lady," Lower has been a fixture at festivals and other events in Central Illinois for several years. It's no problem spotting her. She's the one with a line of kids waiting for her to turn their faces into a canvass. By becoming part of a cruise "enrichment staff," Lower's first voyage to the Caribbean in February cost less than $50 -- including passage for her guest, her college-aged daughter, Brittney. Airfare to Cape Canaveral, Fla., was not part of the deal, so add about $1,000. Still, the three days the happy duo spent sailing was cheap, she said. "They say, 'You aren't a crew member, you aren't a passenger, but you are a celebrity,' " said Lower, who has readied her brushes for more cruises this year and early in 2008. She thinks more people might take advantage of the opportunity for a cheap cruise in exchange for performing simple tasks if they knew about the program. Her opportunity came through a Web site at www.sixthstar.com. The Florida-based company has places onboard the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line for people with a variety of skills, or who perform certain services. They range from singers and ballroom dancers to ministers, billiards experts and bridge instructors. People who can teach topics like home and garden and scrapbooking also are needed. "Destination speakers" are part of the "edutainment staff" who give onboard travel logs about the ports-of-call the ship will visit. Lower, who formerly taught at Clinton Junior High School, began face painting as a career enhancement about six years ago. School administrators encouraged teachers to come up with innovative ways to reach students and help them develop new and varied talents. Lower first organized a group to do plays and characterizations. Some kids sang. Lower also decided to shadow a face painter known as Kitty the Clown, who worked in the Springfield area at the time. On her own, Lower later learned to do more than merely paint flowers on cheeks. She studied a unique technique called full-face painting, which uses the whole face as a canvass. Her method became wildly popular. She attended a face-painting convention in Florida last year and met a Sixth Star representative. She didn't think much about the contact until she saw references to an online face-painting forum. Lower went to the company Web site and filled out an application. After a phone interview, she was invited to apply for cruise openings. Only then did she remember she'd never been on a cruise before. "What if I get seasick?" she thought. Lower did two things to prepare. First, she bought a copy of the movie, "Out to Sea," starring Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau as two elderly men who join a cruise-ship's enrichment crew. Their job was to dance with women traveling alone. Their only problem was Lemon couldn't dance. She also phoned Sixth Star and asked them to alert her if any cruise opportunities opened up sooner than the ones she had already scheduled. The company offered her a short trip just three days long over Easter weekend. Her daughter was on spring break at the time. Brittney went along and helped paint faces. All went well after a short bout with queasiness. The weather was fantastic. The food was "unbelievable;" the table setting was "elaborate," said Lower. "These are things a home economics teacher notices," she quipped. Admittedly, their stateroom was small. "But you shouldn't be in your room anyway," she said. "And, the fact your guest comes for free -- now, that's a perk." The only complaint was a touch of sunburn. But the sting disappeared when she realized the temperature back home in Clinton was just 45 degrees as she sailed from Cape Canaveral to Nassau and Coco Cay Beach in the Bahamas and back again. Her face-painting was a hit. Children sought her out. "I had a fan club," she said, laughing. She did about 40 to 50 faces day, a pace that was no challenge for the Zoo Lady. Better yet, she worked just an hour or two each day. To view more of her work, visit www.facepaintingzoolady.com. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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