Last week I was invited to attend the RAW Orlando event at the Abbey in downtown Orlando. My friend Safia was one of the featured artists and she had a live performance piece. Since downtown Orlando is a bit of a hike from me (as opposed to the Disney side of Orlando), I asked Ray to join me. He and I left Tampa at 5pm and arrived there at 7pm. We then had dinner at a little place called Sonoma Draught House. The atmosphere there is nice and almost feels more like it would be at home in a ski lodge in Utah with the wood and stone walls. Ray and I really liked it. The music was entertaining and the food was good, so it was perfect for before the art event.

You can check out my Perfect Night Out Tutorial look that I wore to the event.

There were all sorts of amazing artists at the event. Some were doing live performance pieces, such as painting live, makeup live, singing live, and performance art. Other artists had their art on the wall. One lady had these amazing painted shoes. Another person had anime influenced art. Someone else did Picasso influenced art that had a woman and a flower from hints of curves.

This talented woman was doing monster body painting. Too bad I wasn’t dressed for body painting!

This lady kept trying to convince me to get painted with something, like a swirly necklace.

I got to go backstage and see Safia at work as she put the makeup on her lovely models. Safia is the talent behind Lipstick Mixtapes.

Her performance piece had an African theme and she wanted to use the cosmetic igrendients and styles available there, so to mimic that she used a clay mask to give the texture to the face that she wanted to show case. She took a flower and pressed it all over this model’s face and then went in with some Make Up For Ever Creams to reinforce the flower design. To my eyes it looked like the flowers were bursting and blooming on her face.

One of Safia’s models couldn’t make it, so she decided to fill in for her. Her makeup is reminiscent of feathers. She did an awesome subtle gold dapple on the skin in places.

Me with Su, the talented woman behind Chronicle Stones. I was excited to find out her husband was into gaming. Of course, Ray was excited to find out her husband was into beer brewing.

Here’s Su, Safia and Cat together. Cat runs the site Beauty By Cat and she’s another seriously talented makeup artist. All four of us are in the Beauty Bloggers of Central Florida group and it was nice to all be together.

Don’t we look cute!

I made a recording of Safia’s Performance, which was pretty cool. I was literally right at the front of the stage so I wouldn’t miss a thing, and I ended up being in the way of the Bride walking up on the stage, so there’s a spot where I move, briefly, to make way for the bride, and then go back to being at the front of the stage.

This really was an amazing, awesome night and I am so grateful to Vanessa and RAW for inviting me to attend. I’m very happy I could come out and support Safia. I think her piece was beautiful and amazing.

I can’t wait to hear what you think of the video! Do you ever go out to events like this?