ParentSounds 01: Pivi Weiss
A Berlin mom's journey to juggle her passion for face and bodypainting with family life, working life, and the occasional need for grownups-only time.
Good morning and welcome to the very first edition of ParentSounds. Whether you are receiving this as an email in your inbox, or reading it later on via our homepage, we're happy you're here!
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For our first parent profile, it was a true pleasure to speak with Pivoine Blanc aka Pivi Weiss, a Berlin-based dancer, face and body painter, and mom to a four year-old boy. Pivi embodies so much of what I am hoping to highlight with this newsletter. It was inspiring to hear her story about getting into face and bodypainting in the Berlin club scene just before having her child — and to learn about her journey since then to develop a vision for how painting, dancing, family life, work, and personal time all fit together.
Let's turn it over to Pivi and see what she had to say in response to our questions about art, family, inspiration, and more.
1. Tell us a bit more about who you are and what kind of creative work you do
I'm Pivoine Blanc, aka Pivi Weiss, face and body painter in Berlin. I'm German and French, born in Paris and grew up in the two languages and cultures. I moved to Berlin 10 years ago and started painting my friends at events. At some point I started offering it in the Berlin club scene and it became my new passion. While my painting career was just starting I got pregnant and then shortly after Corona happened. But despite the pandemic which brought a break and uncertainties, the number of events and festivals with Pivipainting is growing every year.
I've also been a hobby dancer for years and at the moment I'm very happy to be part of a performance project planned in the Bethanienhaus for September 23 and 24. Save the date!
I've wanted to perform again for a long time. I think the year I got pregnant I did my last performance. For me I love improvisation: everything is possible, what happens in the moment happens in the moment. You're very free. You can be on your own, you can be with others, you can express whatever you need to express in that moment.
I started dancing when I myself was a little child. My first memories I was already dancing, moving to music. You can express things you don't know how to put into words. You feel better in your body and in your brain. When I was younger I was doing salsa, cha cha, lots of partner dances. Then I decided I wanted to get more into contemporary dance. I started doing improvisational dance at Tanzfabrik and ever since then I have continued to go. Since having my child I still do these workshops even when it's hard, because I need it.
With my child I give a lot of energy. Of course he smiles and he tells funny stories but I also need energy. What gives me energy is when I feel I can express myself.
2. How did you get into face and bodypainting? When did you start?
Five years ago approximately I started painting at clubs and psytrance events with neon colors. I was starting to develop my concept of Pivipainting and also going to festivals as a mobile painter. And just as I was thinking about developing that, I got pregnant. It was not bad, it helped me to focus on healthy living. Before that I was working in a restaurant, it was a hard job and long hours, and then I was painting in clubs on the weekend. Getting ready to have a family helped me to focus on my health.
When I was pregnant I noticed that I cannot paint so much. At techno events and in clubs people smoke, the music is loud, I was very sensitive and I realized I had to take a break. My son was born in January 2019 and in the winter is anyway usually a break for me. During this time I thought a lot about how I wanted to integrate painting with my family life. I started developing the idea of face painting for kids as well as belly painting for other women who are expecting children.
The following summer in 2019 I had a few painting gigs lined up and because I had this view of painting with my whole family, I decided to go. It was just a few events that first summer. After that came Corona but when my son started going to daycare I had some time to work on my website, business cards, and a concept that I can live from at some point in the future.
Then the second Corona lockdown came in winter 2020-2021 and it just killed my hopes. I wondered whether I would ever paint again. But in the summer after I noticed that people were still into it, still wanting to have fun if they could feel safe. I got masks and painted the people who felt comfortable getting painted despite Corona being around. I kept doing different kinds of events for both kids and adults.
Following two successful Halloween parties at a bar called Lauschangriff in 2022 I decided most recently to develop a new concept: the Color Club. These are grownup parties and a lot of starting it had to do with wanting to keep painting with neon colors. With kids events I can paint but neon colors don't really make sense during the day. That's why I created the Color Club parties, so that I would have a place I could still paint in neon.
3. Do you paint full-time now or is it a side project? If it's not full-time, how do you balance your creative goals with other work responsibilities?
It started as a side project but eventually became a more seasonal job because more people are interested in the summer of course, whether it's festivals, kids parties, or open airs.
I've been looking for/working on a winter solution for years and this year I finally could realize one of my dreams: going to Thailand for four weeks to paint at beach parties on the island of Koh Phangan. Right now I'm trying to take some of that Thailand energy and see how I can make a sustainable income going forward from painting.
It's a challenge for every artist but even more so when you have children. I'm working on some ideas right now like more events and workshops - but my big goal, my big dream and I'm realizing this year it's possible, is to travel and get painting gigs while traveling, and hopefully bring my family with me. Traveling opens your mind and your eyes and I really want to be able to share this with my child.
4. How do you balance (or integrate) family with painting? Is your creative work connected to your family life in any way?
When I was pregnant I was rethinking all my priorities and at that time I could only imagine painting at kid friendly events and bringing my child with me. Now I like to switch it up a little bit more. Some we do Kinder Raves and kid-friendly festivals like Parasola or Kiez Burn, but sometimes I am also getting booked on my own for proper techno festivals.
When I had my child I had this idea in my head of what it would mean to be a "good mom". I was thinking I would be totally happy to be at home, staying with the kids, that I would be okay with this. But after a year I was thinking: I need something else! I want to do my projects. That's how I started with the belly painting. I was going to lots of Krabbelgruppe, seeing moms who were pregnant, offering them belly painting as a way to have a nice memory of this time. Being pregnant is not always a nice experience. Your body is being stretched inside and out and you don’t exactly feel like yourself. So it was about making a nice memory and making people feel good for a day. I was thinking - I can use this network! It was also nice therapy in a way to be able to talk about my experience with new moms. When I was painting them as a mom who already had a child, they would typically have a lot of questions.
With that and the events I could see that painting could be something that would fit with having a family. But eventually I also wanted to get back into adult painting because I like to have a little bit of balance, not always doing the same thing. Sometimes it's different to paint adults rather than kids. They’re both fun but it’s different.
5. How do you think about the importance of developing yourself while also living your double life as a parent?
It is hard to be a parent while also doing night events. It's really cool to be at places like Kit Kat and Renate, these colorful parties in Berlin. It's also nice to feel sexy again after going through this body change. It's very healing, but at the same time it's very exhausting, combining this with having a child. You have to wake up the next day and it's not like you can just say no to this job.
I'm trying to see how I can continue to make space for both kids events and adult parties. With my painting it's a combination and I feel like I can do so many things with this. It's about somehow finding a good balance.
The next three weeks for example I will do mostly kid-friendly parties and I will take my child and partner with me. At the same time, I know that I need to do the adult events also because I need space for me sometimes too. I'm working with a couple of cool collectives, Circus Space Pirates and Four Play Berlin, and it's an opportunity to stay in touch with that side of myself.
6. Last question - what inspires you to keep developing this passion?
Painting someone else's face or body is not just an exchange of colors - it's also an energy exchange and I really feel this. It's not only the colors I share, it's also the energy and inspiration and it gives me a lot.
I think my energy is much better also with my family when I do what I love. It makes me want to continue working for me, with other people and not for other people. That's what motivated me to go on this artist trip over the winter and it's what is motivating me to keep developing these activities now that I'm back.
It's the whole reason why I started to make colors/painting a business, to still have this opportunity to be painting but also to grow. It's what led me into parties and one day I would also like to maybe organize festivals too, but give it time. Maybe just a floor on the festival first.
Support Pivi's work:
Check out Pivi's website
Follow @pivipainting on Instagram
Thanks again to Pivi for agreeing to be interviewed and answering our questions so thoughtfully. And thanks to you for making it to the end of this newsletter!
If you know someone who you think we should talk to for ParentSounds, if you yourself would like to be featured, or if you have any other questions or feedback, please reach out to us at parentsounds@substack.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Before we close, I wanted to highlight one interesting, thought-provoking link which I enjoyed over the last week. I'll generally try to do this at the end of every newsletter:
Hear that? Kid is in the Climate (The New Fatherhood). The New Fatherhood is a popular parenting Substack written by Kevin Maguire, another 2x papa. I feel like my compliments are a bit redundant since his newsletter is quite well-known and I only just came across it, but I have already found TNF to be a big source of inspiration. This week's edition of TNF features a guest post from the Chief Sustainability Strategy Officer at a UK-based advertising company called Futerra, who explores some of the complicated feelings around having kids amidst the backdrop of the climate crisis. Quite frankly this was the perspective I needed to read on this topic. I wouldn't say it's all sunshine and roses, but I was particularly drawn to the idea that "having a child is always an act of hope".
That's all for this time. Thanks again for reading and see you again in two weeks!