About Hawaii Proper Illuminated Art

For the 20 years prior to us moving to Oahu, I was a Local 706 Makeup Artist in Hollywood. To say it is and was the coolest job ever is an understatement. The many places I got to visit, people I got to meet and art I got to create on people’s faces were truly incredible. I never thought I would want to stop working on television and movie sets, in the spotlight along side some truly incredible actors and other makeup artists. 

That all changed one sweet day in February of 2014, when we were blessed with our first beautiful little girl (now we have 2 beauties!)  I was and am forever changed by becoming a mother.  Suddenly the fun of staying on set all hours of the night and being in the spotlight were no longer important, and honestly became almost an annoyance as I just really wanted to get to know this tiny human we had just created.  Unfortunately, the cost of living in LA didn’t afford us the luxury of being able to turn down work so until 2019 we made it work the best we could. 

But when my husband got the call for work out here, I knew it was much bigger than just for this one job he had gotten.  I had been having dreams of a new type of artwork to create, on a different medium.  Before we left LA, I had actual dreams of taking some of my photography, which I have had a passion for my whole life, and printing them out on canvases.  From there I saw myself painting on top of my photos, but not just with paint, I saw the highlights and shadows of my photographs jump off the canvas.  I couldn’t quite figure out how to make it happen. About a month after living on Oahu I decided I was going to try it.  So I printed my very first piece on canvas. I started searching for the paints I had imagined in my dreams but couldn’t get that pop.  That’s when it hit me like lightening!  All the years of using makeup to create highlights and shadows that illuminate the faces I’ve been working on, why not makeup my canvases?!  I found some different mixing mediums and started mixing my makeup into them to get the highlight and shadow, create motion and texture, and bring something brand new to the table.  From there my “Illuminated Artwork” took on a life of its own.