Her name is The Bone Collector, but it was prize money she hoarded for her mastermind, Laura Sluggett.
The Bone Collector is a character who looks like a post-apocalyptic Na'vi punk rocker who brushed aside Conan on her way to meet Mad Max for drinks at the Thunderdome.
Sluggett had been imagining surreal humanoids for awhile, as any aspiring special effects makeup artist does, but when the International Makeup Artist Tradeshow (IMAT) challenged the industry's best to a showdown in Sydney, Australia, she had the right lightning storm to make her monster come alive.
"The theme of the contest was comic book characters, so we create our own including costuming, colour schemes, hair pieces, down to the toenails, and then once we got to the competition they gave us random prosthetic pieces to apply based loosely on what our character was," said Sluggett from on board a boat somewhere off the coast of Australia where she was celebrating her victory.
"I loosely based my Bone Collector character off of another character called Lady Death. I enjoy making costumes and sculpting pieces (like the teeth), plus I had these two 'severed heads' (long story!) lying around that I really wanted to use for something, so she kind of came to life through that, strange as it is. My teachers at school were all super supportive in helping me come up with the design, and making it intricate enough that the judges would like it, so I definitely had help all the way which was amazing. In the end I was happy with her, there are always things I'd love to improve on, but overall it turned out how I envisioned."
The model was a young woman named Madeline, a makeup student from Sydney, who was provided to Sluggett at the tradeshow.
You wouldn't know it from the end results, Sluggett said, but Madeline was quite beautiful underneath all the layers of facial faade. She was the only other person involved with Sluggett during the contest. Each artist had to work alone and without any props other than the ones provided at the makeup station, Sluggett said, but she had consulted a group of outside professionals as she prepared for the IMAT competition.
"Originally I went to the Alberta College of Art and Design for a foundations fine art year, thinking I would do that, but I'm definitely more people-oriented and fine arts is pretty individual," said Sluggett. "So I stopped that, and figured makeup would be a good medium. That way I'm working with people, and still doing what I love. Plus, I had experimented around with makeup in high school, doing an 'October makeup month' where I'd wear random crazy makeup to school every day for that month, so I knew I liked that medium already. I also went to John Casablancas Institute in Vancouver for a 10-month program to study makeup. That was my professional training for this."
She went to elementary school at Vanway, and high school at College Heights. You might have to also credit the Two Rivers Art Gallery for Sluggett's success. She was such an avid enthusiast in this artistic medium that she often volunteered to be a face painter at the gallery's public events, and even worked at Prince George's main art facility one summer.
Now she has the schooling and the IMATS prize to verify her promising future in the movies. She has already worked on some short films and is working toward her next screen project.
"I find it more creatively stimulating than beauty makeup, but those are also super fun to do," said Sluggett. "I want to work in the film industry as a makeup artist, preferably with special effects. So the main thing that the contest gives is recognition and exposure. The photos of the winners will be put into Make-up Artist Magazine, which is a worldwide magazine specifically for MUA's, so hopefully someone will see it and like it and that could be a job down the road.
"There are so many aspects [to the business] - everything from makeup counters, to weddings, commercials, photo-shoots, and film to name a few," she added. "But then for those who are interested in the special effects side of things, there are also opportunities to work in a prosthetics lab making pieces for films, and various prop-making jobs as well."
It truly is a global industry as well, she said. There are also IMAT competitions in New York, Los Angeles, London, Toronto and Vancouver but only a handful of competition openings at each one, and all are under the same organizational process. Sluggett signed up for any of them, just to have the best possible shot at getting into the game at one of the IMAT conventions around the world. It was Sydney's that had a slot for her first. The second- and third-place challengers she topped were from New York and Spain respectively.
For her victory Sluggett received a trophy, $1,000 cash, a large supply of makeup, and a big check-mark beside her industry reputation.
With all that she will return to Vancouver later this month where she intends to pursue more work in the busy film and television industry there.
