halloween magic

Here is a lady who is part cheetah. As you can imagine, she’s pretty self conscious most of the year. Until halloween rolls around...

Like the cheetah woman, I too was a self conscious child. I didn’t say much. I was too busy judging. I held myself and everyone else to the unobtainable standards of my vivid imagination and therefore was pretty consistently displeased with everyone around me all the time.

Why did no one have a mermaid tail? Why couldn’t we all wear white cowboy boots year round? Why were tights worn on the legs, not on the head? Why couldn’t anyone design a backless gown for a 5 year old?

I actually invented the McKayla Maroney face about 20 years before she even tried it.

I also invented the backless childrens gown. It’s called don’t let you mom zip up your dresses. Instead tie a headband around your waist to keep them on. So Chic.

Had I not had my outlet of drawing, I think I would have combusted from my frustration with the frumpy world. Illustration is one of the ways i learned to cope with my disappointment in people’s sizes/shapes/lack-of-mermaid-tails. Well, illustration and Halloween, that is.

Halloween was the day each year that I could finally hope to shine. (don’t worry, I continued to be disappointed by everyone else. Witch costumes? Come on)

I embraced the fantasy of dressing up with unparalleled vigor. I deliberated for weeks about what “to be” and sketched elaborate costume designs which I then expected would be replicated exactly to my specifications. I even went so far as to have my mother order traditional clogs from Belgium because they were an essential component of my Halloween spent as a “dutch child”...

You know that old saying that goes something like “think of the thing you do when you’re procrastinating. that thing should be your day job” well, if someone had reminded me of my obsession with the magic held in creative costuming, they could have saved me a lot of stress when attempting to find a career path.

Fashion illustration is one big game of dress up & make believe. I’m so glad I get to bring a little bit of the magic of halloween into my grownup career.