‘Do what fuels your passion.’
Lemur
Stained Gla ss
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20 | Southern Valley LIVING • Summer 2018
Behind an attractive log home in rural Abercrombie, North Dakota, lies visions of dragons, tigers, flowers and diva challenges as Pam Kinneberg alternates between being a graphic designer and world-renowned face painter. Kinneberg launched PiKadilly Face Painting about five years ago and has immersed herself in a world she didn’t even know existed until a Google search put her on this path. A lifelong artist, PiKadilly allows Kinneberg to unleash her creative side while painting on a living canvas, most often herself, in her office at home — half of which is devoted to face painting and the other half toward her graphic design business. The room isn’t large by any means, separated down the middle by a storage unit filled with colorful paper, topped with paints, brushes, sketch books and other memorabilia devoted to her two passions. Catching the eye is a single dollar bill taped to the wall beside her computer, a reminder of one special event that sums up exactly why this artist began another career path. Kinneberg looked at the money, nodding her head as she talked about painting faces at a child’s birthday party. At the end, a boy handed her a dollar bill. “He wanted to give it to me as a tip. I said, ‘no, no, no. You keep your money,’” Kinneberg relayed, until his mother stepped in to say her son saved his tooth fairy money just to give it to Kinneberg as a tip. “I just melted. He took his own personal tooth fairy money, which you don’t get much from the tooth fairy, and he brought it to give it to me. So there it is, a reminder for me about what my business is about. It’s about making kids happy and doing the best job I can.” The office serves as more than working space for two businesses. It is filled with memories from this birthday party and other events. The face art side isn’t quite as tidy since large frames filled with thumbnail pictures of faces she created are propped against the desk, along with back drops. Her camera is front and center as you walk in, surrounded by a professional light ring. It’s the first thing you see, fitting since this art form has become such an important part of Kinneberg’s life. The camera even has colorful paint splashes across its body because she takes pictures of every face she paints. The camera has been brought to company picnics, community events, birthday parties and other galas. PiKadilly is not the type of face art you find at a school bazaar or community event where young children often have a rainbow or some other innocuous image on their cheeks with paint that shouldn’t even be used on a child’s skin, she said. Kinneberg has wondrous images she paints, such as the red and white webbed mask of Spiderman on a boy’s face, or a pink and white dog mask with a lolling tongue and bright nose on a smiling girl. The child’s face is lost in the character while wearing the colorful mask. Her painting utilizes a good portion of the child’s face in a vivid manner, with color and definition that transform the image to a different level. START OF PIKADILLY Kinneberg has worked in graphic design for about 30 years, 20 of which were on her own. PiKadilly is a more recent business venture, something she has done for five years.