Makeup is a medium. In partnership with Tappan, a platform for discovering and supporting emerging talent, we selected three artists to create works that blur the lines between beauty and art. Using a range of shades and mediums—makeup, photography, paint—they put their own unique slant on the intersection of these two colorful worlds.
Satsuki Shibuya
ARTIST + SPIRITUAL THINKER
Featured in Architectural Digest, Vogue, Kinfolk and Cereal Magazine, Satsuki’s meditative abstract watercolor paintings and limited edition prints play with neutral tones and elegant brush strokes. Memory and meditation form the foundation of her practice.
How would you describe the work you created in three words? Awakening, expanding, life-force energy.
Are there eras, movements or artists that have inspired your practice? Multiple artists for various reasons. Rei Kawakubo for her brilliant mind. Henri Matisse for how he brought things to life in such a simple, straight-forward manner, yet prolific. Joan Mitchell – pure energy captured in each stroke. Hilma af Klint for bridging the spiritual and creative. Minimalism. Marimekko. Ryōan-ji in Kyoto, Japan.
What’s your advice on collecting art? Collect what speaks to you. You will be looking at it for a long time, hopefully. Collect what synchronizes with your body. All art carries a particular soul vibration that if not matched, can create dissonance within you and the space it occupies.
My slant on finding inspiration is if your blood rushes, you have hit the jackpot.
My slant on beauty is it changes over time and continues to morph. The non-permanence of beauty is what makes things beautiful.
My slant on a studio soundtrack is Joe Hisaishi, Indie Pop, and Bossa Nova/Jazz.
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Brianna Lance
PAINTER / ARTIST
Driven to document her ongoing subconscious and spiritual journeys, Brianna Lance paints fantastical environments that are rich in detail and spontaneous in form. Lance’s paintings have been featured in Vogue, Miami Art Week, Harper's Bazaar, East Hampton Star, Freehand New York, and The Standard Hotel.
How did you get your start? I have been painting for as long as I can remember, but then went into fashion for 19 years. During the pandemic I started painting like crazy as a coping mechanism, and realized it felt like my true purpose. So I changed everything and went full force into that. I felt my relationship to myself and my spirituality completely grow when I made the change. I didn’t even know work could make you feel like that.
What’s your personal style when it comes to beauty? Does it ever inspire what you’re painting, or vice versa? My paintings 100% leak into my beauty routine. I spend so much time on my paintings that naturally when I go to paint my face I’m still in that same mindset of the work. I’ll go to the same colors and recreate the same mood. I love putting on makeup. I find it to be one of the most meditative and relaxing things I do.
Are there eras, movements or artists that have inspired your practice? I am non-stop looking at work but there is one painting in particular that inspired me more than anything and it’s Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. I love how feminine it is as well as how there are so many vignettes to fall into. You can be with it for a long time and keep discovering things. I always want to give that to people that view my work, somewhere they can stay a long, long time.
What is your most unexpected art supply? I put a little tiny bit of Van Van Oil on each of my paintings so whoever owns them is hopefully brought abundance. I like to put little physical, and almost subliminal elements in the work that express how I feel about them.
My slant on color is that it is one of the great gifts of being alive and seeing.
My slant on finding inspiration is to always keep yourself open so you don’t miss it.
My slant on creating space for creative work is that it happens internally before externally.
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Jaimie Milner
PHOTOGRAPHER
Through portrait photography, Jaimie Milner “aspires to capture, empower, and inspire the spirit of the people of the African diaspora … capturing the essence of a people and their individual characteristics.” Milner's work has been featured in the Architectural Digest, The Strategist, The LA Times, The Zoe Report & Coveteur among others.
How did you get your start? I was introduced to photography through an elective in high school. I also have a family friend named Bazille who is a portrait/fashion photographer that I assisted and learned a lot from early on. I quickly saw the power of imagery and wanted to use photography to create a more empowered visual landscape for black identity.
How would you describe your work in three words? Free, joyful, confidence.
What’s your personal style when it comes to beauty? Does it ever inspire your work, or vice versa? I’m a natural girl all the way. My makeup routine has to be quick and easy. I just want to feel naturally gorgeous and I think that's what I'm drawn to in the people I photograph. I love natural beauties (that includes all genders) who are evocative and comfortable in their skin. I’m always looking for something real and tangible that I can connect to.
Are there eras, movements or artists that have inspired your practice? Early influences that shaped my love for photography are Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz’s early work. There was this raw tangible beauty and emotion conveyed through their imagery.
My slant on finding inspiration is look within yourself—your dreams and desires are your greatest sources of inspiration.
My slant on beauty is it’s within so stop trying so hard and just be you.
My slant on a studio soundtrack is NEIL FRANCES.
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