I’ve always loved the idea of dressing up. Be that by putting on a costume for Halloween or special occasions or just putting on clothes and makeup that tell a story or evoke a sense of character or mood on any given day, I find it to be liberating.

Drawing from images of Bowie in 1968 of him dressed as a mime (in line with his training as one earlier in his life), the work of Natalia Goncharova and the Russin Futurists (who’d perform written works and paint their faces with images of shapes and animals that evokes the spirit of the movement and avant-garde), the traditional masks used in commedia dell'arte, and the character Pierrot in the film, The Adventures of Buratino (1976), I wanted to create a mask that would act as an amalgamation of my interests and just some of the things that I love and that inspire me.

I experimented with different types of paper, trying to use cut paper objects as a means of echoing the cover for Mirskontsa created by Goncharova using hand-cut pieces of paper varying in size, color and silhouette. Realizing that colored paper wasn’t the best material for the mask to be able to hold its shape, I chose to layer used dryer sheets and tissue paper over the base of the papier mache mask in order to create a skin-like and stringy texture.