When Tracy started out as a makeup artist many years ago, she’d been young and green.
The fast-paced world of fashion had not been the place for a naïve artist, but she’d stood her ground, honed her craft and became one of the best, highly trained makeup artists. That was then, now she was been called old to her face, albeit with a laugh. Was her career a joke to them?
She’d made one mistake, one mistake against the countless times she’d been right about fashion trends, now they joked that she was getting old.
For a magazine shoot, she’d suggested to the art director that they go for a Victorian look; the theme had been “Fine Wine”.
It was a mess. She’d received angry calls from the magazine, her team did everything they could to douse the fire, but it was too late. The magazine refused their offer for another shoot and called another artist for a last minute photo shoot.
At first, she’d thought it was a good thing that the magazine did not release her work to the public, until she realized just how small the fashion world was. Somehow, everyone knew about the fracas and though they didn’t exclude her, they started to doubt her
work.
If she suggested an idea, it was either too futuristic or something else, and it was followed with variations of No. She became quieter and didn’t offer any suggestions when opinions were asked. She began to focus more on technique and less on her instinct, following orders without inputting creativity. The joy she got from her work was no longer there, she thought about quitting while she still had their respect. Maybe this was a sign that it was time to do other things, see what else was out there.
When a green company came in for their advert and campaign, she had been in mourning; it was going to be her last job as an editorial makeup artist. During the meeting, when they talked about their plans for the advert and campaign, and the message they wanted to pass across, she didn’t know when she spoke up.
She heard the groans from her team members and the looks on their faces, their message was clear: don’t say anything, don’t mess this up. And she was going to do that, but if this was going to be her last job, she might as well enjoy the process.
She told the company about her vision for the advert, the looks she was going to create and they agreed.
It had been a moment!
A year later, on her way to a photo shoot, she overhead two teenage girls who were focused on the ad above them, “is that a tear in her eye?” one asked.
“Yea, it’s a silent plea from mother nature to be considerate.” The other replied.
Tracy didn’t have to look up to know the exact image they talked about, after all, she’d created it. She hid her smile and continued on her way.
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Brazen with Vanessa 