From Face Painting To Gallery Walls With Irene Sparks

Color shows up in the most unexpected places, on a child’s cheeks at a birthday party, across a baby bump before a photo shoot, or hanging in a neighborhood restaurant where you stop for dinner. We sit down with Irene Sparks of Beanie Paints, a visual arts company that has spent the last nine years turning everyday gatherings into something people actually remember. If you’ve ever searched for face painting in Pittsburgh or looked for unique event entertainment in the Tri-State area, this conversation explains what great live art looks like and why it works. 

Irene breaks down the services that built Beanie Paints, starting with face painting for community events and private parties, then expanding into body painting that celebrates milestones like pregnancy. She shares how custom designs often become part of a full experience, especially when they’re paired with a photo shoot. We also get into her fine art practice, including oil paintings on canvas, original artwork for sale on beaniepaints.com, and how gallery shows help her work reach new audiences. 

Marketing comes up in a practical way too: Irene explains her main customer groups, from parents and event planners to galleries that reach out directly when they need pieces for an upcoming show. You’ll also hear what keeps her grounded outside of work, plus the one thing she wants everyone to remember about Beanie Paints: she brings the color and keeps the smiles “permanent.” If you enjoy local business stories, visual arts, and community creativity, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review. What would you want painted at your next event?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Are you looking for a visual arts company? Well, one maybe closer than you think. Today we have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Irene Spox, with Beanie Paints. Irene, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I'm doing well. Thank you for asking. How about yourself, Garfield?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Um, good as well. We're excited to learn all about you and your business.

How Beanie Paints Started

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Tell us about your company. Okay. So Beanie Paints, it is a visual arts company. I started it about nine years ago. Um I started off doing face painting for community events, and it has grown since then so much. So over the past nine years, we have helped bring creativity and color to so many birthday parties, community events all over the Tri-State area and Pittsburgh area. Um, servicing so many individuals, putting smiles on people's faces, and it's it's really great to be here today.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

So let us know um Beanie Paint. Is it like a paint, a drawing, uh a visual? So are you what exactly do you do?

Face Painting And Body Art Services

Canvas Work And Gallery Presence

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Okay. So with my services, I provide one of the biggest ones is face painting. So face painting is always a hit at birthday parties, community events, um, celebrations around town. So children come up and get in line with their parents a lot of times, and they're saying, Hey, make me a butterfly, make me Spider-Man. So we're just putting the design on their face. Um, from there, I also do body painting. So body painting is another really nice um celebration of your of your artwork as well that can be put on somebody's body, right? A lot of times I do this for new mothers if they're having um if they're getting ready to have a baby and they have a beautiful big baby bump and they want that decorated. I do that. Yeah, it is, it's it's very different, it's it's unique, it's one of a kind, you know. Um, and that's usually coupled as well with um a photo shoot that goes along with it. Um, but besides, you know, just like with my face painting, my body art, I'm an artist. I'm a creative. So I do um canvases and I love working in oils. So I also sell my artwork. Um a lot of different types of variations of artwork that you could come and see um on my website at beaniepaints.com. But besides that, I do have gallery shows. So I just recently had a gallery show a couple months ago, and I was able to sell um a couple of pieces of artwork at a local community college. But then I also have my artwork that's displayed in local restaurants, um, shoe stores, um, local establishments as well. It's been in um let's see, the governor's um office as well as the mayor's office.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Wow, so you you you make it happen.

Who Beanie Paints Serves

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yes, yes, I am.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Now we we know marketing is the heart of every business. Um who would you say is your target customers and how do you currently attract them?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

So I have a couple different populations, right? So naturally for face painting and and and community events, that would be it's open to sometimes it's just like parents who are looking to have a birthday party and having um different activities added in. Um, sometimes it's just the community itself, um, the the event planner, right? Um and then when we're thinking about for for my my art is in that aspect, it's galleries. So a lot of times galleries will reach out to me directly asking me if I have some pieces that they would like to have displayed in their in their gallery for an upcoming art show.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah, I know you're here on our podcast today, but have you ever thought about doing your very own podcast?

SPEAKER_01 4:14

No, I haven't. I've I've sat in on several different podcasts, but that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Maybe that's something you consider in the future. Now, outside of work when you're not busy with all your paintings, um, what does Irene like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Oh, that's a good one. I love the outdoors. I do love the outdoors. So um I always stay kind of grounded into nature. I love traveling, but I'm also a grant writer, so I have another small business as well. So I'm a grant writer and and I help nonprofits with fundraising. So, in between both of those, I really do enjoy painting. I do find that relaxing. So, reading books, that's another thing that I like to do. Um, I love coming across new genres and reading the whole collection, but it's usually outdoors.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Yeah, we're about um out of time, but uh I want you to leave our listeners with one thing. If this is one thing that you should remember about beanie paints, what what would that one thing be?

SPEAKER_01 5:14

We bring the color to your event. We make sure that the smiles stay permanent. So you could always just visit us at our website, www.beaniepaints.com, and you can see a lot of different variations of my artwork that's also for sale.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

So um, Irene, for those individuals that just like to punch the numbers on the phone, is there a number you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Oh, for sure. It's 412-951-5756. And you could also Google me. We're good and we're Googleable. So if you just type in Beanie Paints, you'll find us there as well.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

So, Irene, I really appreciate you having you on the show, and I wish you and the company the very best looking forward.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Thank you so much, Garfield. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnplive.com. That's gnplive.com.