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Faces, canvas, photopaper . . . USU artist creates in may ways, in nearly any medium By
Debbie Lamb
Imagine having the ability to change a person's appearance drastically by putting a little make-up. Now imagine being able to create almost anything with your hands such as photographs and paintings,. Jasmine Francette Bailey was born with that ability, but doesn't feel as if she has to confine herself to one aspect of art. "You are a make-up artist . . . is that correct?" "Yeah, but I don't like to label myself just one thing. People ask me if I am a make-up artist; it's lik, yeah, I do that but I do like a million other things as well. I don't know I just don't like being called a make-up artist for some reason." Bailey, was born in Provo while her father was attending BYU. Her first year she lived in Provo,, but moved home to Australia and grew up in Perth. She went to college at Brigham Young University. Bailey has had many majors because she wanted to learn so much. Her major have been acting, at age 17, broadcast journalism at 20 and theater and media arts secondary education when she was 21. She hasn't graduated. She thinks that she will graduate probably by the time she is 30. "I am in no rush because I am doing a lot of other stuff," Bailey said. Bailey came to Utah to learn more about the computer program PhotoShop and to be the make-up artist for a new movie, Pinball Junkies. Make-up artists have been in high demand in Utah since Hollywood decided to start filming many movies here, partly because of the unspoiled scenery and partly because of the low costs of filming in a low-wage, non-union state. Jim D'Arc, curator of the archives at Brigham Young University, came up with a book idea on moving making in Utah when he first came here. "I thought it would be quick and easy, just rounding up a lot of secondary sources and putting them all together," D'Arc said. "The more I got into it, the more contradictory evidence I found. I've ended up doing a lot of primary research. There are so many different accounts of where movies were filmed, how they were filmed. I've tried to identify all the titles and then find people who worked on them to verify the information." That was 20 years ago. "That number currently approaches 300," he said. "Movie making is a significant part of our history. But it's been largely ignored or marginalized." Jasmine has worked on movie sets as a make-up artist before, said Justin Carter, one of Bailey's close friends. She did the make-up on the Testament, a movie produced by the Mormon church. Carter was first shown a picture of Bailey by her sister when Carter was serving a mission for the Mormon church. Carter was told that he had to meet Bailey when he came back to Utah; at the time she was attending Brigham Young University. "She came back from America to Australia and I met her there," Carter said. "I didn't really know what to think yet. My first impression would be when I came back to America. She came up and she was doing a concert at the Eccles Center. I was very impressed. I had a lot of fun she had an intriguing personality, she was artistic, we could laugh, we could talk for hours, it developed like that." Bailey has grown up being creative. Since primary school, the equivalent to elementary school in the United States, and in high school, she won many awards for her art. "I think that I won because there wasn't much competition," Bailey said. Bailey's mom still has a picture that Bailey drew when she was 4. Even at such a young age Bailey paid close attention to details. "It's has dad's bald head -- it has his bald head, his receding hairline, everything," Bailey said. "We didn't have a cat or a dog so I added them in because I really wanted one. Mom was just saying recently that it was all my idea too. It wasn't like she brought out stuff and said 'OK, today we're going to make something,' because mom's not like that. Maybe she made us Play-Doh a couple of times or gave us Legos." Growing up Bailey faced challenges that made her different. Like most kids who do not fit the `normal' status, she encountered teasing for her ability to create. Bailey would be teased by the "meanies" and be called "hairy legs and stuff like that during the week." When it came time to draw a picture for an assignment they would come and ask her for help with their projects. "Hey Jasmine, um, do you know how to draw a picture of a man and a baby, because you are such a good drawer." "I didn't want to say no because they were big jerks and one of them used to kick me in the shins and stuff," Bailey said. "And it hurt!" Bailey's artistic genes did not come from her parents. Her mom doesn't believe that she has any creativity at all. Bailey has a different way of looking at creativity than most people. "My mom doesn't think she's artistic so she therefore doesn't think that she's creative," Bailey said. "She doesn't realize that there is a difference in being artistic and being creative. She's always going on `I'm just not creative at all like you.' Except she is she can cook great meals, she can draw little cows on the bottom of her letters to me and stuff. But she swears that it doesn't come from her. My dad is more creative but he doesn't paint pictures or compose music, but he is a great speaker and he talks really well. He learns things in a visual way, like through diagrams and pictures. He doesn't really feel that I got it through him either. "I think I am a mutation." Like writers, artists also have blocks, they are just creative blocks. "Sometimes I don't feel creative or artistic," Bailey said. "Sometimes I feel nothing. It's horrible when you feel nothing and you can't express it in anyway. My outlet is expression and when I am not doing something that is not an expression I give up and throw it away or whatever." Bailey's best work has come in times when she breaks all the rules, where logic is thrown out the window along with the paintbrushes. "I have to break all the rules," Bailey said. "I have to it's just me. I throw all the paint brushes out and use my hands. I don't have to prep my canvas with oil and let it dry for a year and then do touches and let it dry for another year and do some more. I just grab everything and splllitt, every different color, every different medium, just squish it on in big swirls and big splotches and it's just, YYYAaa! To me that's just ultimate self-expression. I try the other stuff and it just never works, like some times when I just start with a brush and a canvas I always start with an eye, and it starts to get annoying. I'm like okay, let's start with something else. OK, lips. . . I can't do lips real good, not like an eye." Make-up is a total art form, it's just like painting, Bailey said. Special effects make-up is really fun too. Thinking up an idea and creating it from scratch is one of her ways of releasing stress. "A lot of times I just sit down with a piece of paper or a canvas or something and just start painting or just start drawing, just to get rid of everything that's inside of me," Bailey said. "Kinda like writing in a journal I guess, just purging everything and sorting everything out. When I am playing the piano it's the same too. Playing a passionate piece of music, like something that I've made up. It's just self expression. It's just pouring my soul and saying what's inside of it. And the same with like sitting on a beach staring at a sunset. It's all connected for me, it all does the same thing. Staring at the sunset, sitting on a beach all by myself with the wind blowing, it's just the same as playing the piano or painting a really cool picture." When Bailey doesn't feel inspired she finds that going for long walks in nature is the best way to clear her head. "I live right on the beach at home, so I just go for walks on the beach," Bailey said. "Sometimes I just sit there and talk to myself or the Man Upstairs. Just breathe in the salt air and stare at the waves somehow inspiration comes. Being out there among pure Godliness it just comes. That's where I go to get inspired when I am not inspired."
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