Bodies Review by Louis B Hobson

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BODIES

It would be great to experience Toronto body painter, Matti McLean, in an intimate setting like someone's living room. That's how he makes his audience feel. It's not like being in a theatre. He chats, and asks for input, all the while painting some one. In our case it was a young woman who had volunteered to be his subject. His theory is that we are most comfortable in our bodies when they are not what we see daily in the mirror. McLean, who came from a small town just outside of Toronto had to learn to become comfortable with his sexual orientation, and then with body image. As he explains, being overweight and gay was doubly difficult. He also discusses what it was like to give up so much of his self worth to please a partner, and what it took to escape this abusive relationship, but he doesn't make the experience seem maudlin. That's in his past, and that's where those things are going to stay. He calls audience members up to paint their deepest fears and regrets on his body and then he wipes it all together to form a canvas that he paints on. McLean's positivity is what make this hour so effortless for an audience, and, he would like us believe, for him.