How did you get involved in FX Makeup and body paint?
I had just moved to Fort Bragg, NC and I went from having three jobs to having no job at all, which was extremely difficult for me as a workaholic. My depression didn’t help much either. I had been watching Mykie, aka Glam&Gore, on YouTube and wanted to give FX a try to help pull me out of my depressive rut and I ended up falling in love with it.
My love for bodypainting started when my friend Maverick asked me to paint a Ouija board on my chest to try to freak out my husband, Levi. Levi doesn’t like horror at all, especially Ouija boards or anything that deals with messing with the dead so I thought this bodypaint was PERFECT. He wasn’t scared, however I continued to bodypaint because I had finally found a way to express my creativity since I can’t draw to save my life.
FX and bodypainting combined turned into my favorite art which is character creation. I love creating characters that no one else has done or seen before. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride because I did something out of the ordinary. It takes me away from the hardships of life, giving me a chance to be something/someone else for a little while.
Do you have a favourite piece that you’ve worked on?
Quite a few. My Weeping Demon face paint has been the makeup that I’ve re-done the most; my haunt boss loved it so much that she wanted me to be that character for the video that we had playing outside of our haunt this past season. I like to inflate my own ego and say that the Weeping Demon became the “face” of the haunt.
My Dark Rot makeup, inspired by Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, is my most liked makeup on Instagram to this day.
My Spider Queen was my most recent character that I created that definitely made it close to the top of my list. I had formed her in my mind and instantly fell in love with her. I’m so happy with how she came out.
Where do you draw inspiration from when you’re working on different
pieces/canvases?
Usually my ideas come to my mind suddenly out of nowhere. Sometimes they take a while to form in my brain. I don’t like to recreate “trends” that have already been done over and over, which can limit me sometimes but I always make up for it with what I produce.
Being a band nerd, music gives me a ton of inspiration. There’s some music that I’ll listen to set the mood for haunt-worthy makeup, some music for characters, so on so forth.
Any advice for people thinking about getting into FX?
People will think FX is gross and weird, that maniacs and psychopaths are the only ones willing to mangle Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant because they must be disgusting in the head. It’s okay to be gross, weird, and not a part of the norm. It’s fun to be different. KEEP BEING GROSS AND WEIRD!
Don’t stop doing FX because you think you’re terrible at it. I was crap at FX starting out but I knew that I wouldn’t be a pro overnight. Two years later, I’m still not a pro, but my bruises are now better than the bruises that I used to make.
You co-host a podcast. Where did the idea for that start?
The Podcast Is Coming From Inside The House, or PICFITH, actually wasn’t my idea! It was the idea of two of my co-hosts, Patrick and Leigh-Anne. They asked me for my thoughts on their podcast that they wanted to start and I encouraged them to do it. They ended up asking me and my 3rd co-host, John, to be a part of it so that we had a variety of interests such as my love of gore, John’s love of classics, Leigh-Anne’s love of murder mystery, and Patrick’s love of…whatever horror he loves, I’m still unclear on what he likes.
We used to do podcasts but I found the editing process took too much out of me, I’m also not that great when it comes to talking to people haha. How long does it take for an episode to go from recorded to completed?
We recently recorded our pilot episode, called Episode 0, January 13th. Recording took about five hours, including setup time, figuring out how the equipment worked, and waiting for the dogs to stop barking.
Editing so far is taking a couple of weeks. To give an average on how long an episode takes to put out, I’d say three weeks to a month, however I’m sure that we’ll be better and faster at it once we really get started.
When can we expect to hear the first episode?
Expect to hear Episode 0, hopefully, within a week or two. Episode 1 should be out not too long after that! (NOTE FROM SHAWN : It’s available now)
You co-directed a film called The Dying Curse, what can you tell us about it?
First off, I have to give credit to my co-director and the writer of this whole film, Jason Setzer, for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this project in the first place. I can’t thank him enough for giving me this chance of growing my makeup skills and my newfound director skills. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to work for and with him and with the amazing cast that we have. I’m taking this movie wherever I go and I’m not just saying that because I have a tattoo dedicated to this movie, I swear! I’ll always remember The Dying Curse as where I truly got started along with the Devil’s Playground, the haunt that has my heart.
Without giving away too much, it follows a cryptozoologist and his students searching for a creature in the woods of North Carolina, but something isn’t right about the situation. The film stars my PICFITH co-host Patrick as the professor, Peter. Alongside him stars Isela Gomez, Dravi Otis, Sean David Henderson, and Cassandra Biddle, all good friends of mine, however not everyone in the film is listed or else that list would be a little long. Even I have a small role in the film!
It’s basically a psychological sci-fi horror take on a search for a creature like Bigfoot (except it’s not Bigfoot, we’re too low-budget to hire Bigfoot.) There’s gonna be some gore, there’s gonna be death, AND there will be a character that I’ve been given free reign to create!
We’re currently still shooting the film and hopefully we can be done shooting before I have to move to Hawaii in June. You can expect The Dying Curse to be released at the end of this year or early 2019!
How can we support your work?
You can support in a bunch of ways:
For my makeup, follow my page JoRave Special Effects on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @joravesfx, especially Instagram since that’s where I spend most of my time when on social media, and share my work with your friends like wildfire!
For PICFITH, follow our page The Podcast Is Coming From Inside The House on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @PICFITH, as well as Instagram @picfith so that you don’t miss any updates on when we release our pilot episode. Also follow us on the podcast app for iOS, Spotify (I think?), or any other podcast broadcasting source that you may listen to so that you don’t miss a single episode.
For The Dying Curse, follow our page The Dying Curse on Facebook for behind the scenes photos, cast interviews, our first trailer, a release date, etc. We will be starting a crowdfunding page with rewards for donations soon so keep an eye out for that. The movie will be released on Amazon and YouTube.
ALSO if you’re in Fayetteville/ Fort Bragg or in a neighboring town, please please please go to the Devil’s Playground during haunt season! Like I said above, that haunt has my heart and I will absolutely be working for them again when/ if we return to the area.
