By SCOTT FEINBLATT
Not all monsters come from literature or the movies. For the past two years, special effects makeup artist Alondra Excene Shields and fashion stylist Gabby Lovazzano have showcased their visionary creature designs via their passion project, a zine called CREATURAS. Essentially a collection of images from highly stylized photo shoots, each issue presents a concept through which the artists flex their artistry and explore thematic variations through collaborations with models, photographers, and other creatives. On the eve of the release of the latest issue, RUE MORGUE stopped by one of their locations to have a chat with Shields and Lovazzano – and take a couple of pictures.
After traveling to the rented workspace across the street from the famous Hollywood Forever cemetery and meeting the members of the team for the day, I asked Shields about the history of the project. “It started when [photographer] Vico Vélez and I were doing creature shoots together,” she explains. “I was doing my very first ’31 Days of Halloween,’ and I asked her to shoot one of them. We had a lot of fun doing it, so we started doing shoots every Halloween. And then she was like, ‘Hey, let’s make a publication.’ And I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, let’s do it!’”
That first year, Shields and Vélez experimented with variations on popular monsters. “I based them around my performer friends and their skills,” says Shields. “So, we had an aerial vampire character, which is like a real aerial artist inside of a crescent moon. Another friend of mine knew how to do lasso work, so I made her a lassoing cowboy alien. And that was kind of the idea around the first series. Then, last year, we did mythological creatures and deities.”
Alondra Excene Shields transforms model Luna Lovebad into an alluring alien creature. Photo by Scott Feinblatt.
This year, all of the character designs are riffs on extraterrestrials, and the team has changed a bit. For the five character shoots, Shields has teamed up with three different photographers (Maya Holt, Yulia Shur, and Daniel Rubinstein). “Having one photographer do everything was a lot for Vico – to do five shoots and then edit, especially the way that she edits, which is so beautiful … she’s an amazing beauty re-toucher,” Shields explains. “This year, instead of trying to find one person to do all five, Gabby and I reached out to five different photographers, and we ended up getting three.”
Niohuru X as featured in “CREATURAS.” Photo by Vico Velez.
As for developing the individual concepts, Lovazzano explains, “We put mood boards together based on things we were inspired by. Then, I also like to look through my kit. I have a huge vintage collection, so I am able to use some of that for the shoots, which is really fun because every time I find a piece that I’ve held onto for a while, it’s always nice that it finally finds a home and a purpose, and it’s super gratifying to realize that’s why I’ve been holding onto this for five years. But then, other times, I’ll just source pieces, buy them new, and put the look together.”
Lovazzano goes on to say that the concepts usually take three months to hash out. She emphasizes that they are always fun to develop in tandem with Shields. “I love working with Alondra,” she says. “She’s so talented. She’s just so detail-oriented, and we really work well together. She pushes me in ways that other artists can’t, and I feel the same with her. We both feel like we trust each other’s vision and that we can comfortably talk to each other about the direction, and that’s hard to find.”
“CREATURAS” model Autumn Robinson. Photo by Vico Velez.
The creators use Blurb for publication. This platform eliminates the need for minimum quantities. Each issue is printed individually per order. Blurb also provides shipping services. Thus far, the project has been a labor of love, with little in the way of profits. However, Shields and Lovazzano are looking at getting CREATURAS in brick-and-mortar stores. Still, each issue provides its creators with another type of compensation.
“This is supposed to be fun,” Shields says, “even though shit has to look really good, and it has to be clean, and it has to be done relatively fast, and there are a lot of moving bits, and we’re working on a shoestring budget. I’m still trying to make this a really fun learning environment and fun art-creating environment. I’ve had so many of my assistants and other makeup artists and models reach out the next day and be like, ‘Oh my God, I felt so relaxed. I felt so comfortable when I was in the makeup. I felt so this way and that way.’ That’s really what this is all about. It’s like, through CREATURAS, I’m helping people feel seen in a way, even though I’m making them look like someone completely different.”
For more information, visit www.creaturaszine.com. Follow CREATURAS on Instagram @creaturas.zine.
