Me

I guess everything started a while back. Growing up I considered my dad an artist - he could draw better than anybody I knew. My mom had a big, white cabinet she used to store all of her craft supplies. It was in the tiny hallway of our trailer, no more than two feet away from the fronts of our washer and dryer. Mom made a lot of my clothes so from early we played with iron-on transfers & fabric paints. I always had art supplies; colored pencils, crayons, construction paper, markers, scissors, etc.

As I got a little older I started painting faces. Luckily I had a couple girlfriends that were willing to let me do my experiments. I curled and straightened, colored (and ruined), mascara'd and plucked and everything in between. "Practice makes perfect" and, over the years, I had a lot of practice.

In college I realized my passion for visual arts, even further. My contribution to projects started trending more towards publication design - flyers, advertisements, pamphlets, and websites. I took A LOT of photos and spent a lot of hours in front of my monitor Photoshop-ing. Looking back on it, I realize how editing my photos became a creative outlet as well as a hobby.

During my last year of college I worked for Chanel as a professional makeup artist. Following that I did Visual Merchandising and helped open a new Dior counter in the area. Sadly, I hit that post-graduation point and lost a lot of my drive and vision. I wasn't sure where I was, where I had been, or where I was going. I expected to find a 75k per year job as an "insert job title" and that didn't happen. I even tried Network Marketing for a company called ACN. I made $20.

Recently I relocated to Chicago, Illinois which has been a blessing but has also had it's fair share of hurdles.  I work as a Studio Manager for Kevin Weinstein Photography.

NOW... here we are. My makeup kit, monitor, and camera are big. My passion is bigger. I had to take a step back and realize that nobody will ever pay me the amount of money I feel I deserve. Nobody will ever give me the recognition, creative freedom, schedule, projects, or time that I want. Nobody except myself. I have been inspired by many strong individuals to take on my own adventure - to start working for Me.

The process is daunting, and it's not necessarily fast. At this point I hope to create things that are beautiful and that people enjoy seeing. I promise to continue learning as much as I can and to always strive to think outside of the "normalcy box".

Thank you to everyone who supports me - My parents for giving me the talent, my friends for giving their input and lending me their faces, past management for making me realize the shortcomings of "big business", and to all my fellow makeup artists/photographers/designers/crafters/DIYers & dreamers. I think big things are in store for us all.

Take care, share your talent, and love what you do.

Ricky