Reidsville bodypaint artists Scott Fray and Madelyn Greco are the recipients of the Betty Cone Medal of Arts award.
The prestigious award, sponsored by AT&T, was presented to the co-founders of Living Art America at ArtsGreensboro’s annual meeting on June 21.
The Betty Cone Medal of Arts, first awarded in 1999, is the highest local award presented to artists, according to an ArtsGreensboro press release. The award “recognizes artists who have achieved clear excellence in their disciplines and/or have made extraordinary contributions to their field or the community at large through their artistry or expertise.”
Fray and Greco are the 16th recipients of the award and only the second co-recipients. Recipients must meet all the necessary qualifications and receive four nominations. Greco said the couple won the award for a combination of factors, including their artistry and co-founding the Living Art America competition. Started in 2013, the competition draws many prior world champions and will be held in Greensboro on October 14, 2017.
“It is my pleasure to know Scott and Madelyn personally, and I am proud of their achievements while being Reidsville citizens. They are another example of art in our proudly diverse City of Reidsville,” said Mayor Jay Donecker.
The husband-and-wife team, whose business is Living Brush Bodypainting, are the only bodypaint artists to win all five World Championships in a row, in all five of the categories, Greco noted. Fray was the World Bodypainting Champion for airbrushing in 2013. In 2007, the couple held the Guinness World Record for painting the most people at one time – 278 – although that record has since been broken.
The pair are active advocates in their art form. In April of this year, the couple became the first American bodypaint artists to present a TED Talk at Tedx Greensboro. They continue to create regional events to showcase bodypainting as well as their own personal creations.
Both Fray and Greco, artists in other mediums, got into bodypainting by attending a festival.
For Fray, he attended a festival in 2002 where he was asked to draw a small detail on someone’s arm, Greco explained. That led Fray to pursue full bodypainting as a craft. For Greco, she attended a festival and saw a woman in full body paint, something that would change her life, she said. She would meet Fray and ask him to paint her, which led them to developing both a personal and professional relationship.
Fray has lived in Reidsville for some 20 years, and Greco joined him here about 13 years ago. Their joint love affair for the art form has garnered them much success over the years and there appears to be no limits for this talented duo in their chosen craft.
