Meet Grace Shaw | Freelance Makeup Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Grace Shaw and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Grace, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
Purely the amount of work that goes behind every single makeup or cinematic piece in general. Makeup is something that people do every day so I think it is easy for people on the outside to assign a commonality to the work that myself and my peers do. But there is so much more that they don’t see. Myself and people like me who consider themselves makeup artists have spent hours upon hours practicing what they do, trying new techniques, refining old ones, working towards making their art something truly unique that captures a message or aesthetic they could otherwise never demonstrate. I have spent upwards of 7 or 8 hours working makeup before, applying, coloring, fabricating an entire world in a single makeup. And that was just an application on myself for fun; shooting with a photographer or video director who knows what they are doing, with the intention of capturing your art in its own world takes even more time and effort. While this misunderstanding may cause some artists to feel unappreciated, I do think it also carries the potential to make our work that much more unique, suspending the belief of our audiences.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art is a depiction of both the great horrors of this world and great beauty. I use the medium of injury replication, expressive beauty makeup, and characterization through cohesive applications to try to tell a story, something that can be interpreted by an audience member. Gore is something I pride myself in, specifically the most realistic and medically-accurate gore I can achieve under a freelance budget. Recently I have started experimenting more with the bounds of beauty makeup, using color and the shaping of a face to represent ideas or themes. Once the pandemic situation has lightened up, I would also love to pursue more on-screen practical effects and take on other ,bigger, artistic challenges Learning the art and the skills surrounding it has always come easy to me, finding the time and motivation to actually do my art has always been my struggle. Between having to balance my art with academics as a college student pursuing research, as well as someone who is mentally ill, I will have large periods of time when I am simply too burnt out or unmotivated to involve myself with the art I love so much. Regardless, i have worked very hard to be the artist I am today and to have participated in the opportunities I have been given. I cant wait for my journey to continue.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A few incredibly talented friends and peers of mine in the local industry that never fail to keep me motivated and inspired are Seven Meave, Ben Holland, and Charlie Durso. They can be found on Instagram: @aneurcyst, @benmakesmonsters, and @slugsushi respectively. They push me to create the best art I possibly can, while still having a little fun with it.

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