A collaboration with make up artist Bernard Gellel (Instagram @Bernmk)
Hi there my friends. Don’t be scared. This is me and yes, in these images I am wearing real make up. It’s not a photoshop piece of art.
In the past ten years, I’ve noticed a fair share of awesome pictures on Instagram from Avatar inspired fans who have showcased some amazing make up skills. I’ve seen any where from people doing it for fun, to practising for Halloween, to actual makeup professionals doing tutorials. I have been wishing to start experimenting with some Fantasy looks with the help from Make Up Artists who would be willing to take a shot, so, I finally took the risky leap and here is the first one!
A few months ago, I reached out to Bernard Gellel, a young, enthusiastic freelance make up artist asking him if he was keen to create an Avatar look on me, to share with you all on the blog and my socials, all for the love art and creativity. I wished to once again to push my boundaries to try something perhaps untraditional and a little out of the box, with the additional aim of sending a message of awareness about the planet we live on too.
I love Bernard’s creative work, not only in this make up genre, but also when he applies make up for events and weddings. I had met him in a fashion event 2 years ago, in which he was wearing a tiara of flowers in his year on a jeans and blazer outfit and I immediately loved his look, his solar energy and his authenticity, the way he looked so comfortable expressing himself – and I jumped out like a mad woman, out of the VIPred carpet queue to meet him and to congratulate him on his look that day! And I gave him my word that one day I d be in touch with him. I kept my word …and here we are.
I love the look Bernard created on me in about 3 hours, using Mehron Paradise Paints and coloured Raine vivid pigments. The colour application and the blending looks very clean and the details look amaaaazing. What do you think?
OUR MESSAGE
Bernard and I wish to send a few messages to you who reads this blog today:
First of all, like the humans in the movie, us humans are somewhat losing our connection with nature and the planet Earth itself. We often are selfish, and disconnected from the natural beauties. We live in cement buildings, we re always on our phones and don’t make enough time to connect to nature and we tend to lose that connection with ourselves too.
We’re here, we’re big, we’ve got the guns, we’ve got the technology, we’ve got the brains, we, therefore, are entitled to every damn thing on this planet. That’s what we think but that’s not how it works and we’re going to find out the hard way if we don’t wise up and start seeking a life that’s in balance with the natural cycles of life on earth!
In James Cameron’s film Avatar, an alien tribe on a distant planet fights to save their forest home from human invaders bent on mining the planet. The mining company has brought in ex-marines for ‘security’ and will stop at nothing, not even genocide, to secure profits for its shareholders. While Cameron’s film takes place on a planet sporting massive flying lizards and sci-fi action, the struggle between corporations and indigenous people on our planet Earth is hardly science fiction.
For decades, real indigenous tribes around the world have faced off with corporations—mining, logging, oil and gas—determined to exploit their land. These corporations, much like the company in the film, usually have support from the government and access to ‘security forces’, sometimes in the form of ex-military or state police.
Yet unlike the film, in which the indigenous group triumphs over the corporate and military invaders, the real-life stories of indigenous tribes rarely end justly: from Peru to Malaysia to Ecuador to the Amazon forests, their struggles continue.
When is this going to change? What are we doing about it? Humans are we being responsible? Are we thinking about the future for our children?
xxx
Grazielle
Thank you Bernard for this amazing collaboration.
