I have always loved to create things, from Christmas ornament projects with my Mom to wicked awesome custom made furniture for my Barbie dolls.  I did my first full makeup application on another person when I was 12 years old for a boy who was a huge fan of the band KISS (Paul Stanley forever!). He wanted to put on a show for his parents – he rocked it! My professional makeup career started many years later and I remain passionate about bringing dreams to reality. As a graduate from California State University, Fullerton with a BFA in Graphic Design and minor equivalencies in both Technical Theater and Sculpting, I feel very fortunate to have always worked in at least one of my fields. While living in Los Angeles, I worked not only as Graphic Designer but also as a freelance theatrical & SFX Makeup Artist, including 10 years as a Monster Maker for Knott’s Scary Farm’s Halloween Haunt. I spent 10 years in Las Vegas, working on a myriad of projects, including Cirque du Soleil shows as the Artistic Makeup Supervisor for 8 of the resident shows there. In addition to supporting their in house staff with PR events and new performer integrations, I have had the great opportunity to assist two Makeup Designers; Nathalie Gagné (during the Creations of KÀ, The Beatles LOVE, CRISS ANGEL Believe and Viva ELVIS) and Eleni Uranis (during the redeployment of Zarkana).   I am currently back at CSUF, this time as part-time faculty and am really enjoying teaching Theatrical Makeup. When I’m not using my makeup brushes, I spend time either in the kitchen discovering new jam recipes or working on inventing a magical makeup brush washing machine.  Either way, when it eventually comes time to retire, I’m good.

The images I have gathered here are a smattering from the last 20+ years.  The majority of them were taken backstage in the midst of our nightly ‘organized chaos’ so they might not all be a fully finished costume look (i.e. no wigs/headpieces etc).  All of these makeup applications were done by me.

I invite you join me for a look behind the curtain…