Artist of the Issue: Autumn Larkin
Autumn Larkin, a senior, has embraced her scary and quirky sides along with her artistic talents to turn herself into a walking Halloween decoration–all year long. She gained the nickname Casper, from her friends, for her spooky, friendly nature, along with her ghastly white complexion. With ever-changing hair colors and her scary-good makeup skills, she frightens and intrigues all who dare to gaze upon her.
“Tim Burton has always been my biggest inspiration. My mom always loved Halloween, so I grew up watching lots of his movies and fell in love with his work more and more as I got older,” said Larkin.
With Tim Burton making the biggest impact on this young artist, her style inherited some of his flare. When asked to describe her art she responded, “Geez….I’ve gotten creepy, grotesque, dark, spooky….I guess those seem about right most of the time.”
Her creepiness has brought her through art major, drawing and painting, advanced art 2, AP studio art, and into the district art show, with seven pieces on display since freshman year.
“I think art is really a good way to get my mind off of things. No matter what the situation might be, I can always find a way to draw or mess around with makeup and ignore everything else for a while. Even in my classes, I would always draw on the sides of my papers or my arms. I drew on myself a lot the past few years in class.”
With her body as her canvas, she has begun to master the art of special effects makeup, creating abominations like Eligos from “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” a demogorgon from “Stranger Things,” and many other creepy-esque makeup designs. This talent has secured her a job at Valley of Fear haunted hayride as the make up artist for the haunters.
She plans on attending the New York campus of Make-Up Designory. Follow her on Instagram @autumn_leelee and like her on Facebook.
