Surprise henna and Richard Thompson

(Photography by Annaliese Moyer, www.StageRightPhoto.com )


There are times when as a henna artist you might say to yourself, "I am going to throw this mini henna kit in my purse and take it with me today, just in case"... Every time I have thought to bring along a cone on any kind of adventure, I have been glad I did. This Wednesday night at Portland's Aladdin Theater was no exception. Granted, I had the slightest notion that there might be the slightest chance that Simon, the engineer and front of house manager for Richard Thompson's touring band might want a "Hello Kitty" hennaed somewhere on himself, but if I hadn't brought the henna along there would have been NO chance...

So, in fact, the dashing and talented Simon does decide to get his henna, during the set break when he learns that the process of getting Ms. Kitty will take less than 2 minutes. He decides the top of his hand is the spot, and we proceed to lay down a half-dollar sized design back stage. Complete with pink glitter. I am utterly charmed by Simon, and horrified at the thought that he might in some way manage to smear his henna between backstage and sound board and be obliged to hate me for two weeks while the resultant red smeary stain fades away. Job completed in one minute and forty five seconds, and duly photographed, we headed back to our seats. When Simon returns to the sound board his henna is dry and un-smeared. Hallelujah!

Throughout the second set of the show, when I happened to glance over and see Simon's large, henna Hello Kitty adorned hand (with pink sparkles) turning knobs and adjusting sliders on the big sound board, I was filled with great glee and satisfaction.

As fate would have it, though, I was not done with my henna for the evening!
Indeed, at a certain point later in the evening I found myself going up the backstage stairs with a small group including my brilliant friend and photographer Annaliese Moyer , Phil Garfinkel, and artist Gary Huston to meet Mr. Thompson and say hello to the band. Michael Jerome, Richard's drummer for the tour (also of Better Than Ezra) liked what he saw of the henna on Annaliese, and on Simon, and was assured by Phil that he could, indeed, have some for some himself.

After a brief moment of preparation and witty conversation with Richard and the band (about the use of urine in ancient woad processing in England) we were ready to put down some henna on Michael.

I knew that I had about 3 minutes to pull off whatever I was going to pull off, but I had no clue what design to lay down. Behind me I hear the conversation drift and hear the word "dragon" come out of Richard's mouth.
Ok. Dragon.
Cool.

And we went to town. I pulled a Debi Reiser style dragon with flowers out of the air and finished with holographic glitter in about 3 and a half minutes (not including conversation). Hooray. Michael smiled the whole time, and Mr. Thompson was interested enough to take a picture of the proceedings.

The Richard Thompson Band is currently touring and recording a new live album during the first set of the show. If you get the chance, in Eugene tonight, or in Arcata, San Francisco, LA... check out this concert if you can. The new songs are stunning and will be with you the next morning, and the morning after that as well. The tunes are brilliant, the band is brilliant.

I am truly grateful to have been there and delighted that some henna found its way onto the company.

Guess that mini kit I decided to carry was just the ticket for value added to an awesome evening.