This Is Halloween

We've waited all year for spooky season to arrive and FINALLY it's here! As far back as I can remember I have always loved Halloween. It started with just dressing up in my grandma's clothes and pretending to be a zombie around the house. Eventually turned into the cheap costumes of the late 80s that consisted of a plastic apron with your favorite character on it, accompanied with a matching mask. Would you be a sweaty mess after wearing a plastic costume for longer than an hour, OF COURSE! But that's hat Halloween was all about. Mine was Care Bears and I loved it. Every year I can remember that Halloween became deal in retail. Costumes and decorations and lights where available everywhere, while I fell deeper for the glorious spooky season. This also sparked a love for the horror movie genre. While I gave myself nightmares on regular basis because of said films, I continued to delve deeper and deeper in to the spooky season.

The older I got the more my creativity began to bloom. I started draping sheets on my body to mimic gowns, even started sewing actual pieces. My mother gave me her old sewing machine and it all made sense to me. Creating the crazy costumes that my twelve year old imagination could conjure up are some of my favorite pastimes. For a super quiet introverted child, playing dress up was such an escape for me that really helped make me the artist that I am today.

In 2009 I started watching YouTube videos on makeup and immediately fell in love with the craft. I watched hour of Halloween transformation videos and immediately started implementing what I learned every Halloween season. Party City and Joann Fabric are like my second home. I'm like a kid in a candy store anytime I get to visit them. Just hours of roaming every aisle to ensure I don't miss any new releases of fabrics or craft items I can use to create costumes and set designs.

Over the past decade I have continued to grow my skills and share my work online via social media. It's been a learning experience opening up and sharing my spooky creations online. At the same time there is SO MUCH inspiration to be found online. I feel like I get more inspired to create by seeing all the amazing artists online.

Every year I come up with new characters and design their shoots. I build sets, props, sew costumes, style wigs, the works! I'm proud to say that every year my work gets bigger and better, which is really your ultimate goal as an artist. The ultimate dream is to one day be on the make team for a horror movie. I would love to apprentice with the top SFX artists in the industry. Bonus fact about me: I want to be a zombie extra in a horror movie or tv show. Would probably end up doing my own makeup and I would love every minute of it.

Did Covid throw a wrench in my Halloween plans this year? Of course! Covid has cancelled EVERYONE'S plans for 2020. What's been awesome is seeing how everyone has made the best of a crap year. Zoom Halloween parties, spooky live streams, themed snacks, and so much more. That tenacity is what pushed me to make the best of all this time I have on my hands working from home. I decided to use this time to get even more creative and create all the creepy cool characters I could dream up. Some gore, some glam, some fantasy, a bit of everything really. Super proud of my work this year and already planning for spooky season 2021. If you enjoy my work you can see more on Instagram @epic.werk. Happy Halloween Everyone!