I hadn't, until recently.
Remember when you were growing up and your Parents, Teachers, Family, and Friends all wanted to know what you wanted to be when you grew up? I don't know about you but I could never settle on anything official. One day I wanted to be a Veterinarian, the next day I wanted to be a Marine Biologist, and the next day an Anthropologist; I never settled on anything because nothing ever felt right. I never had that "ah-ha" moment until quite recently.
My whole life I've been in to every type of artwork you could imagine: drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics. That was one thing that was and always would be a part of myself and my identity; the one thing that I could always say was something that was part of who I am.
Right now my artwork is just a hobby transforming in to a small business as I search out customers who want custom pieces or people that would like to buy my work.
Here is where the magic happens. :)
And a couple of recent pieces of mine to show you what my current creative ideas are. I always am thinking about the next piece I could work on for myself or somebody else.
So as you can see artwork is something I am passionate about that I will always have as a part of me.
My whole life I have loved movies, particularly darker movies, and specifically movies made by the one and only, Tim Burton. I love basically every movie he's ever made (well, almost all of them). My artwork in the past has been extremely influenced by his style and I can say that it helped me find that deep, 100% knowing with what I want to do with my life.
Fast forward to about a year ago.
I don't know if you've all heard of a small show called Doctor Who? (cue outrage at "small") Well I outright refused to watch the show up until about a year ago because I thought it looked silly and confusing. My brother watched it religiously but the couple of episodes I caught in the middle of things confused me and I had no clue what was going on, so I didn't get in to it. But then Netflix happened, and Doctor Who came along and called my name. I watched all 7 seasons of the "new" Doctor Who, and to date I have watched those 7 seasons probably 7 times each (I have no life).
This show is absolutely amazing and deep and profound and they have stunning special effects makeup, which is what I'm leading to explaining about now!
Throughout my life I have admired and been a bit envious of people that got to work in movies/film doing makeup (which I didn't know was dubbed special effects makeup) where they got to create whatever creature their imagination could come up with. To turn people in to unrecognizable monsters or aliens with extremely realistic detail. Growing up though I had no clue that you could actually go to school to learn these things, so I just dubbed it a fantasy and had never even thought that I could get in to that field of work without teaching myself.
Now to link Doctor Who with special effects makeup. While watching Doctor Who this past year it dawned on me that perhaps there was somewhere in the world you could actually go to get educated on this type of thing. So off I went in to the wonderful world of the interwebz to discover all that it knew. In my searches I found that YES, there were indeed schools! Unfortunately in my first searches I only found schools in the States, which definitely was never going to happen.
So I dug deeper... and that's how I found Vancouver Film School with their program Makeup Design for Film and Television! I was flabbergasted at the quality of the student's work and the fact that it was so close to home. When I researched further in to the program and talked to my now Admissions Adviser I knew this was for me. I felt it in my gut that this was what I was meant to do, there was no question about it. Just the thought of attending VFS for this makeup program lit a fire inside me that nothing I had ever done before had been able to light.
Quickly and with no hesitation I started my application process, with great praise and encouragement from my adviser, John. He made me feel at ease and less nervous about applying and waiting for whether or not I'd be accepted.
Then the day came. I got a phone call from John and I knew he was going to be telling me my results so I had MAJOR butterflies. He was quick and to the point because he knew that waiting would drive me crazy!
I GOT IN! The second that he read my acceptance e-mail to me over the phone I started shaking immediately and had to hold back tears until I hung up the phone. Instantly after hitting "end" I started bawling and couldn't contain myself. I had never experienced this type of overwhelming joy and excitement and passion for anything in my life. I knew then that I had found my calling.
In one year we will be moving back to BC so that I can start my training to be a special effects makeup artist where I will be working towards eventually working in film and television.
It is going to be an intense year of ~70 hours of school and project time a week but it will 110% be worth it in the end. When you find something that calls to you to do for the rest of your life that you love, you can't turn it down.
In the mean time I am going to be extremely impatiently waiting for next year to be here already!
If you'd like to check out the program and what it's all about you can take a look here! I highly suggest watching all 3 videos on the main page to get an idea of what I'll be doing! Makeup Program
My advice to all of you is that if you EVER have that feeling, deep down in your bones, that something is calling to you. Something that you have a passion and a NEED for, then go for it! Don't hold back because of ANYthing because in the end, you will regret it.
~Kayla
No comments:
Post a Comment