Sweet Painted Little Ladies

Well, the state of Iowa has this program that tries to lure its college graduates to relocate there. Last night, they had a reception at the Chicago Cultural Center, with a meet and greet with Governor Tom Vilsack (whom we'd met previously when they did the same thing in 2000). So what did I get out the event? Well, Vilsack, despite being a native of Pennsylvania, has the laid-back Iowan thing down. He went through a five-minute speech with no notes.

But what caught my eye was the little promotional video they showed before his speech. In the montage of footage presenting Iowa as a healthy, prosperous and safe place to raise your kids up, was a clip of a child at some fair or festival getting her face painted.

It just struck me that a face-painting scene has become video shorthand for family life in a lot of commercials for area chambers of commerce, renaissance fairs and county fairs. I don't know that it has any cultural background to it, except for grandma exclaiming "Why did you get your face painted up like some wild Indian?" I first noticed face painting as an accessory to women characters in sword and sorcery comic books of the 70's. And now here it's a harbinger of traditional family values. I guess it's just one of those things that lends itself to a picture of a kid having some fun without being twirled around in a carnival ride.