The Sistine in Spandex : Parties: Artist Silvia Jahnsons is painting huge panels of Lycra reflecting the comedy theme for the Governors Ball for the Academy Awards.

While most people try to squeeze their bodies into spandex, artist Silvia Jahnsons makes a living at squeezing people’s bodies onto spandex.

Jahnsons spray-paints portraits onto panels of Lycra, a brand of spandex widely used in swimsuits and workout wear, to create stretchy likenesses of her subjects. Her panels will hang Monday night at the Academy Awards Governors Ball at the Shrine Exposition Hall.

With deft skill--and several assistants stretching the material to keep it free of wrinkles-- Jahnsons applies fabric dye on 10-by-90-foot Lycra panels. Her work for the ball, reflecting this year’s comedy theme, will hang 40 feet above party-goers. “It is like doing the Sistine Chapel,” said Ambrosia Productions’ Carl Bendix, who commissioned Jahnsons to do the panels. “I wanted Silvia because you can always find an artist, but how often do you find a Michelangelo?”

Jahnsons said she began painting on Lycra several years ago while working on production designs for the Florence Opera Company in Italy. Jahnsons, who has specialized in background- painting illustration and production design for 20 years, was struck with the idea of Lycra as a canvas while spray-painting the company’s spandex unitards.

“I thought, ‘Why not do this on a grander scale?’ ” she said.

Bendix, who along with partner David Corwin has produced the Super Bowl eve gala and the Grammy Awards post-ceremony party, said he worked with Jahnsons when she painted ceiling panels of angels that hung in the chapel for actress Geena Davis’ wedding to director Renny Harlin in September, 1993. He said he designed this party with Jahnsons in mind.

“I know her talents as an original artist,” Bendix said. “It’s not just creating party decorating, it’s more creating party art space.”

For the ball, Jahnsons painted 36 images of actors chosen by the academy to grace the hall. Revelers will gaze upon portraits of such comedy teams as Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.

Jahnsons worked for 20 days on her creations, painstakingly trying to ensure that no wrinkles or imperfections showed up in her work.

“No mistakes can be corrected,” she said. “Once it is painted in, it’s in.”

Although she laughs at the comparison with Michelangelo, Jahnsons would like observers of her artwork to be moved in the same way visitors to the Sistine Chapel are.

“I just want them to feel a very, very profound sense of joy and exuberance of life,” Jahnsons said.