Today we’d like to introduce you to Talia Ranier
Hi Talia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Baltimore, MD! I have a lot of love for my hometown.
I have a long history with the arts. I was a visual art major at the high school, Baltimore School for the Arts. Fell in love with painting, photography, art history, sculpture and mixed media.
I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. I didn’t fit in well there, but it was a great art education. I graduated in 2010 with a BFA in Photography.
Early jobs included: working for my dad’s videography business doing graphic design, video editing, and some camera work. Working for my high school sculpture teacher in his cabinet making workshop. Working in a photo lab. Photographing events.
My other half and I moved to West Hollywood from Baltimore, MD in 2012. His goal of working in the music industry brought us here. We live in the same amazing rent controlled apartment with our dog Petey.
My first real job in LA was a preschool portrait photographer. It was rough, but I drove all over LA and even into areas like Palmdale and Lancaster. I was fascinated by LA and all it’s different cultures and vibes. I loved doing street photography during these gigs.
I decided to go back to school for a Master’s in Art Education with the goal of becoming a high school art teacher. I started at California State University in 2014. I soon realized if I wanted to teach, I also needed a credential. I spent the next 5 years working toward the credential and my master’s.
I busted my butt working two jobs and as a full time student that also needed to complete field hours! Finally I got to the point where I could teach as an intern, which meant I could get paid to teach full time while completing my credential. It also meant I was never a student teacher. I was thrown to the wolves in a wild charter school setting with very little mentorship or structure. I created an arts program at this scrappy high school. I taught out of a defunct cafeteria kitchen. That was a crazy time.
Over time the school evolved to become it’s own less chaotic charter school and I became a fully credentialed teacher. I was using my photography curriculum as the basis for my master’s thesis and used my student work and feedback to develop it. I worked myself to the bone and finally achieved my master’s in the spring of 2019. I loved my students and felt the curriculum offerings I provided were meaningful. A lot of social/environmental justice, rigor, storytelling, developing a conceptual basis for artwork, no matter the age. My students were thoughtful, passionate, and imaginative and we respected each other. I became beloved by many of my art students. But I was exhausted and certain aspects of being a teacher weren’t getting any easier.
In the fall of 2019 I gave my notice to admin and students that I was leaving the position. My gang of students were so mad. But, it was time to do something for myself! I was barely ever creating anything besides teaching materials.
In January of 2020 I started the Complete Track at Cinema Makeup School. My love of film, especially horror, fantasy, and sci fi inspired me to become a makeup artist. I had considered it back in my teen years. The goal was to use the training to have an art centered career.
I had about 3 months of classes and then everything in LA shut down. I did my best to keep learning and applying makeup at home. I really fell in love with character makeup techniques, like out of kit injuries. As the great pandemic wore on, I was encouraged to apply and teach at my alma mater, CSUN. And ended up teaching future multiple subject teachers how to teach art. It was quite a challenge teaching art education and giving art projects over Zoom. But we did it.
I was able to complete more of my courses at CMS in 2021, which was amazing, but had to make some money and spent the next fall teaching at CSUN again. This is the year in which I began to work as a freelance makeup artist. I started taking as many set gigs as possible. Student films, shorts, whatever I possibly could get involved with. I learned to juggle teaching at CSUN a few days a week and my emerging career as an MUA. Things were starting to feel good! Being a working artist, the long hours don’t feel the same as they did when I was a full time teacher. I completed the Complete Track at CMS in the spring of 2022 and had a bunch of makeup gigs lined up! I was in charge of blood gags, doing creature makeups, making custom prosthetics, experimenting, learning on the job and just really loving life!
Then my first lull hit and the existential crisis hit. I took a job at Trader Joe’s. MUA worked began picking back up and then I had to learn how to juggle TJ’s with makeup. I started working on commercials, music videos, more short films and really starting to adjust to the ebb and flow of the industry, which has been struggling through strikes, etc.
In the spring of 2023 Cinema Makeup School connected me with an after school program looking for an SFX makeup teacher. For the past year and a half I have continued to teach high school students about SFX makeup twice a week. It’s a blast! They love making gross wounds. I even give them a final project where they make their own simple prosthetic and they design a final makeup look.
In the summer of 2023, CMS reached out to me again, this time to work with them part-time developing new curriculum for the school. To this day, I continue to work with the school. Evolving their curriculum is like continuing education. I’m still learning new techniques and avenues in the makeup and SFX realm, especially in regard to the growing use of 3D printing and digital design in the SFX lab world.
Working at CMS has also given the opportunity to fill in for teachers and also represent the school at Monsterpalooza. This 2024 Monsterpalooza posed an incredible opportunity to showcase my own creation: Celeste and Mayra. Celeste, a stripper with a parasitic twin, Mayra, embedded in her stomach. I made 5 custom silicone face appliances for my model to make her hyper feminine. Then I created a grotesque deformed twin for her stomach. It consisted of two foam latex appliances, malformed face and arm for the front and another malformed arm coming out of her back. She is a weird hottie. It was an incredible time parading her around the convention. I finally felt like an artist with my own voice for the first time in a decade or so.
So yeah! That’s where I’m at now. A weird intersection of my two careers. Still freelancing. It’s been more on the music video side of things lately but those are good fun! I would love to work on a feature film one day, but the state of the industry seems rather uncertain.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a makeup artist, my strengths lie primarily in special effects and character makeups. I love gritty, imperfect characters with wounds, illnesses, signs of aging. I also really love making prosthetics. It’s the biggest challenge to make things realistic and blend in in an imperceptible way. I also really love being on set. There are so many moments for problem solving and quick solutions. I have ADHD and love that everyday is something new. I am also an engaging teacher. It seems like those I work with see my passion for makeup and art and that draws them into their own work.
What makes you happy?
Creating, being a part of the creative process in any way. It’s something I have always needed to do. Making stories come to life. I love creating a successful illusion with makeup in support of the story.
My husband & old man pitbull. Being in nature.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.taliaranierartistry.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talia.ranier.artistry/
Image Credits
File name: WES04777 by Brandon Walker
File name: IMG_6327 is by Grace Presse
File name: IMG_6866 is by Jackie Parra
File name: IMG_0852 is by Jackie Parra
other photos are from my phone camera
