Artists create a piece of work, on their preferred subjects, with carefully selected mediums. They’re aware of color, balance, texture, shape, and how all of those things affect their final masterpiece. The typical idea of a traditional artist stays in the realm of painters, sculptors, photographers, and those who draw, but I want to challenge the title and attitude of acceptance to be expanded to makeup artists as well.

I have a great appreciation for makeup artists, their mediums, their canvas, their creativity, and the final execution of these combined. I captured their artistry in a context that visually immerses the audience in beauty and art. I assigned each makeup artist a famous art style, movement, or piece from the history of classic art and gave them the freedom to create a look that emulates  the aesthetic of their assignment.

            It was my honor to collaborate with so many creative artists for this project. Please enjoy Muse: A Photographic Exploration of Art and Makeup.

Katrina

Replicating Roy Lichtenstein’s 1965 ceramic, Blonde, Katrina formed each dot within a stencil in order to keep the artistic consistency found in the original work. Pop artists, like Lichtenstein, celebrated mundane objects and people of everyday life but elevating these things to a fine art level. Like the artists before her, she made a complex art out of simple products.

Jennifer

Jennifer’s look was inspired by a Chinese ceramic glaze known as Sancai, or three-color ware. This glaze was most commonly used during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), and the three most common colors are green, gold, and brown. These colors, and the common drip texture were the main elements that Jennifer tied into her work.

Chloe

Inspired by one of the first distinctly modern movements, Chloe used impressionist brushwork and colors to develop this look based on Vincent Van Gogh’s Green Wheat Fields. She admired the emphasis on “the feeling” of an image, rather than realism. She found the challenge to be using vibrant colors outside her normal realm, and avoiding sharp, crisp lines for the softer, smoother lines.

Shanti

Without a specific piece in mind, Shanti found inspiration in the ancient Egyptian mosaics and mural art. Her passion in makeup started with the creativity and art in Halloween and themed makeup. Her goal was to recreate the mosaic tiles without being too literal, while also incorporating the iconic eyeliner that was commonly found throughout ancient Egyptian makeup.

Alieya

Fauvism, a 20th-century movement that used intense color as a vehicle for describing light and space, allowed color to become an independent element of art. Alieya created a look using colors and color swatches inspired by Henri Matisse’s Woman With a Hat, while also utilizing colors to replicate the face shape of the woman in the original painting.

Katherine

Finding inspiration in Peit Mondrian’s Composition 1916, Katherine created a look that included the unpolished background colors, and the sharp lines in the foreground that visually ties the original artwork together. The original work was part of the De Stijl movement, which embraced primary colors and geometric forms in a pared-down, abstract aesthetic.

Bryana

Inspired by Salvador Dali’s surrealist painting, Melting Watch, she utilized the yellows and blues seen in the original painting, as well as some of the main symbols within the watch to make an indirect reference to  the original painting. With a broad theme like surrealism, which between the 1920’s-1960’s unlocked imagination and tapped into the subconscious, Bryana found the most challenging part of the look was not the application of the makeup, but in the planning of the design.

About the Photographer:

Elizabeth Leland is a graduate from The Art Institute of San Antonio where she earned her BFA in digital photography. After picking up a camera in 2007, Elizabeth developed a love for interacting with people and making genuine connections through the lens. Elizabeth continued to grow in photography and took every opportunity she could to learn from small business owners, established photographers, and teachers. 

She finds her inspiration in color, texture, humor, and captivating stories.