Conversations with Jennifer Cushing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Cushing

Hi Jennifer, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in New Jersey, and in high school Hurricaine Sandy hit my town. The help we got from FEMA and the Coast Gaurd inspired me to become a Registered Nurse. I moved to Fresno a couple months after graduating and I earned my nursing degree there.

Almost immediately after I started working as a nurse, the pandemic hit. I was at the bedside for the whole thing. A bunch of other difficult things started happening in my personal life during that time. It took me going through a lot of pain to get to a point where I was ready to break free of my chains. I made a lot of changes to my mindset and to my life. I started pursuing art again.

I invested in myself more and decided to play with makeup after a few years of hardly wearing any. Makeup let me play with different colors and textures. It wasn’t only self-expression, it was self-creation.
I became obsessed. I was honing my skills and doing my research. I did my makeup everyday for over a year then I realized, I want to make art with people. I don’t want to just keep doing my own makeup. I no longer want this to be just a hobby and I need to create with others.

I moved to LA a year ago with my boyfriend, Sonny, a Respiratory Therapist I met while working in Fresno. He’s a gem and I love our little life. I’m currently enrolled in esthetician school. My goal is to be a freelance makeup artist with a focus on editorial beauty and fashion makeup. I’ve also dreamed of working for film and TV. No matter what I’m working on, I see myself thriving when collaborating with other artists who are as passionate as I am, but we each have our own modalities of expression so we can create something greater than the sum of our parts.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, not at all. But I had an internal drive and I felt a divine guidance along the way. The recession in 2008 affected a lot of people, and it affected my family. I had been working two jobs since high school just to save up so I could move away. I knew I didn’t want to live in New Jersey anymore and California sounded appealing.

I worked two jobs my first year of college until I couldn’t anymore. I had to get As in my nursing prerequisites or I may not have been admitted to the nursing program. So I lived off of $700/month for a while. It was very uncomfortable. Then being a nurse in the pandemic, and couple of my close family members getting cancer, my own health scare, and leaving an unhealthy relationship all lead up to where I am now.

Despite all of that I do feel a divine protection. I see and feel the wisdom of a higher plan. The amount of struggle you go through carves space for an equal and opposite joy. Making art gives me hope and allows me to bypass a lot of barriers to genuine connection with others. I’m learning as I go and that’s why I actually enjoy getting older.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a makeup artist. I’m known for having an eye for color and pushing the boundaries of conventional beauty. I’m most proud of knowing that my art has helped others heal as it has helped me to heal.

A classmate of mine told me her mom has been a clown for like, 30 years and loves makeup so she showed her mom my instagram. Her mom is also an art therapist at a rehab, so her mom showed her students some of my work as an example of what can be done with makeup in terms of self expression and emotional processing. I actually cried a little on the way home after she told me that. To know that somewhere in this city there are people I was able to help during dark times is almost painfully reassuring that I am on the right path. It was then I felt most confident calling myself an artist.

What sets me apart from others is that beyond my makeup skills, I am also professional, honest, hardworking, and kind.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The opposite of creativity is stagnation. To succeed, you have to do the work. You’re never done. You are always in a state of becoming. Art can save you, because the process of creating leads you back to yourself. That’s why the process tends to be more satisfying than the end result. If I can transcend myself through art, by speaking to the souls of others, then I have come full circle and rectified a great loneliness for myself and that person. That is my idea of beautiful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xx.mascara_beetle.xx?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==