Regina Harris is an interdisciplinary artist immersed in high fashion, performance art, theatrical, and illustrative work. She has worked as a make up artist in the high fashion world for magazines like Vogue, W, and Elle. Her work can be found in illustrations, photographs and fashion runways internationally. Her experience and contemporary skills as a cosmetic artist and hair stylist has led to work in the art world with groundbreaking, cutting edge artist Mathew Barney in his Cremaster Series, on the Cremaster Cycle 2, Cycle 3 and Cycle 5. She also worked with the Andy Warhol Retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1997, on the mannequins for the installation displays. Her sculpture has been displayed at the D’Amelio Terras Gallery in 1999 with the work Body Pod in Pool. She has created her own brand - Regina Harris Perfume Oil, which consists of hand crafted fragrances of exotic oils that are defined as decadent and based on ceremonial incense resins.
Zora Burden: What type of environment did you grow up in? How did you become interested in the world of fashion and beauty?
Regina Harris: My Mother was a flamenco dancer, and moonlighted as a lounge singer. My aunt was an opera singer. I was learning to play castanets, sing and dance as a toddler. I was surrounded by glamorous costumes and a lot of music. I loved to watch my mother put her makeup on and set her hair every night. I used to mimic her ritual on my favorite doll with crayolas and whatever other makeshift tools I could find. I used every opportunity to play dress up in my mother’s vibrant red lipstick, jewelry and stilettos.
ZB: How did you learn to work within the cosmetic business? Did you attend school or have any formal training?
RH: While I was in high school I was in a special artist program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and another photography program. As a teenage girl, I was obsessed with YSL and VOGUE, especially the Chris Von Wagenheim photos. I took a part time job at a local department store, which evolved into a job in the buyer’s office. After high school, I went to college to study fashion design. After a bit of an exploration to see what was on the other side of the Atlantic, I replaced those old crayolas with real makeup and off I went. I moved quickly from Dept store, to salon then to freelance. I was self taught. The same need for instant artistic gratification that probably drove me to become a makeup artist, kept me from waiting around for my degree. But I am certainly not against pursuing a degree. I believe that you should just keep learning until your heart stops beating. All life experience helps. But I am an observer. I observe details about everyone and everything and absorb it like a sponge and memory bank it for future reference. I have an obsession with classic film and period makeup. I am also a real delving researcher.
ZB: How do you define the art of makeup and cosmetics?
RH: Makeup is a combined form of artistic expression and tribal instinct. I do not believe that women need makeup for improvement. We are fine the way we are.
ZB: For you, is makeup artistry about the concept of creating beauty or manipulating imagery on a canvas?
RH: Both really. I work, for the most part, collaboratively with photographers, filmmakers and fine artists. I tend to think about color in a graphic way first. How color placement will affect the over all image. Also, how it can affect the mood of a story or persona.
ZB: Is the process of the transformation with makeup empowering for you?
RH: The ability to manipulate form is always empowering. I've studied and performed with a Butoh troupe. I am always thinking of ways to manipulate form. Makeup, dance, performance, sculpture, scent.
ZB: How did you become established in the fashion world?
RH: I was lucky. I went to London and worked with great magazines very quickly. I started out by doing some very unconventional projects like creating fairy characters for Tatler Magazine, I body painted the models with horns and antlers that I made of papier mache. And I did a Face magazine cover, where I roughly marked a model’s face with palmistry symbols. Not your typical smoky eye and glossy lip. Shortly after working with British Vogue, ID etc. I started my career working with visionary artists Michael Roberts, Perry Ogden, David Bailey, Ellen Von Unwerth. I really enjoy collaborating with editors, artists, and directors. I started working with a team of directors from London early on like Vaughn Arnell and Anthea Benton. They would make brilliant epic period commercials. Bonnie and Clyde, David and Goliath, Grapes of Wrath. Recently Anthea and I worked on a project creating a surreal rabbit girl. She’s got a fab vision. Runway shows are different because a makeup test is done a few days before. Then you swoop in with a team of 10 assistants and you have 3 hours to get 40 models ready. Some are late coming from other shows minutes before they need to go out on the runway. Some have makeup on from the last show, their faces are sore from getting rubbed, poked and pulled so much. I’m pretty calm or so I’ve been told, so I thrive in the fast paced environment.
ZB: What is your opinion of being a cosmetic artist for high end fashion as compared to the art world?
RH: The division is getting a lot smaller as the two worlds continually embrace each other. I work with fine artists like Marilyn Minter who are courted by the fashion world. Recently we completed projects for Allure and Tom Ford. Many photographers who are known for their fashion and commercial work are also accomplished fine art photographers and so on. I believe now more than ever, one can and should be able to do whatever projects they please, not fall into the constraints of a career label.
ZB: Will you describe the process of your work during a shoot from beginning to end?
RH: My work starts the moment that I get the assignment. Reviewing pics or bios of the subject or model. It’s as important to know their personality, as it is to look at their face. Sometimes prepping and purchasing makeup supplies, phone or personal meetings. Once in a while you have to show up with little or inaccurate information and be ready to do just about anything. The initial makeup usually takes an hour but could be anywhere from 20 minutes based on time restraints of celebrities to 3 hours based intricacies of elaborate makeup. If I think it will be more complicated or more models, I bring in assistants so that I don’t torture my subject. I change and or maintain “the look” throughout the day. Additionally, it is important to be involved in the energy of the shoot in any way. Everyone lends ideas and pitches in; it’s an equal effort. I am there until it’s done. My time is their time. When I worked on the Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3, for example, I was up for about four days straight. We only had the Guggenheim for a short window of time with much to do. We cat napped on the ramps. I carry about 100lbs. plus of equipment with me on a daily basis and an inventory of several hundred items costing thousands of dollars. I keep several suitcases packed and ready to go and a back stock of everything from wigs, beards, several hundred pairs of lashes blood, special effects, and glitter. I have dragged my kit to Greenland, Chile, everywhere.
ZB: How did you make the transition from high fashion to the art world?
RH: I feel that they have always been intertwined for me. Even in my earliest days, I worked with photographers who have developed notoriety as cutting edge artists like photographer Doris Kloster.
ZB: How did you become involved with the Cremaster series?
RH: I worked on several projects with photographer Michael James O’Brien, who was the photographer producing the beautiful art still images for Cremaster Series. I had just finished the Cremaster 4 when Matthew called me and said he was working on Cremaster 5. I knew his work and found the concept fascinating and the imagery compelling. Ursula Andress was to play the Queen in the film. Coincidentally, I was an old friend of her sister Kathe Andress. It was a destined good fit. I really wanted to work with Matthew. His sense of storytelling through film is inspiring.
ZB: What was your experience like working with Matthew Barney for the series?
RH: It was really hard work, long hours and insanely enjoyable. Everyone was tired but good humored, even into the wee hours of filming. There is never a dull moment on a Matthew Barney set. Matthew is down to earth and we had a very talented crew. Gabe Bartolos, the model/prosthetics maker and I collaborated quite often on characters. We all worked together. Sometimes the characters were physically demanding and the talent needed a lot of support.
ZB: How much creative freedom did you have while working on the series?
RH: Matthew is very hands on and detail oriented. So he pays special attention to fine details like hair and makeup. I was doing both. Once he chooses artists to work with him, he trusts their input and instinct. I think our vision of how the characters needed to look was very synchronized.
ZB: Do you have any particular memories while working on the films that you’d like to share?
RH: Well when you work on films and photo shoots you find yourself spending long periods of time in the strangest locations. In the case of Cremaster for instance, climbing a 25 ft. fire ladder to the very tip of the Chrysler and perching on scaffolding for the day while filming a maypole scene. Or spending a magical but frigid cold day on Lanchid bridge in Budapest. Sometimes it’s like living in a dream. Being involved in a project like that is personally enriching. Of course after the Guggenheim Retrospective, people started understanding what I had been working on. Until then most people, even those that were fans had never actually seen the films because they had limited engagements.
ZB: You also worked on the Andy Warhol Retrospective with the mannequins. How did this project come about?
RH: Simon Doonan was in charge of recreating the Warhol windows for the Whitney. The wardrobe stylist, Joe Delate recommended me. That’s how our business usually works, usually referrals.
ZB: Will you describe the work you did for that project?
RH: I had to take mannequins and repaint their facial features, paint in makeup and wigs. They were from all different periods. Two mannequins looked 1930’s and one or two looked like later 1960’s Barbie. Someone had been there before me and mucked it up a bit. So I had to work over it. It was great fun working with Simon. I have always had the desire to work on display windows. And what New Yorker doesn’t love Warhol? He’s Iconic. In the film and art world it is common that a makeup artist makes design choices for the entire look. Directors and artists usually like to speak to one person to get a unified concept. In fashion you are working on projects for very short periods of time. Advertising campaigns with millions of dollars at stake are sometimes shot within a few hour time frame. It serves the project better to have separate hair and makeup artists.
ZB: Are there any other major projects you’ve done in the art community?
RH: I have collaborated quite often with an artist and storyteller Elisa Jimenez, who I met that hand makes clothing. She found out that I also danced. I would dance in her performance pieces after I did makeup for the other muses. I performed at Holly Soloman Gallery wearing just glitter.
ZB: With the art world, especially the surrealism of the Cremaster series, do you feel confined when working with traditional beauty? Does it limit the creative process?
RH: I have never felt confined by classical beauty. My inclination has always been to offer the world more intriguing interpretations. People need new information. They don’t need to see what they already know.
ZB: Did your work with anatomy via makeup and body painting lead to your interest in sculpture? What sculpture work have you done?
RH: I did a photo shoot for Ike Ude’s Arude, in which we used transparent amorphous face and headpieces I created for the model with the idea of altering the face and head without using conventional makeup techniques. Elisa Jimenez saw my headpieces and asked me to make a sculpture for a performance she was doing. I created a Body Pod in a standing pool to fit Tara Subkoff. D’Amelio Terras Gallery used it for their exhibition. It was wet and dewy and breathing. It was made of plastic, water and glycerin. Again extending body energy past the confines of the physical body. When you think about it, even lipstick does that. If you see a red lip on a woman you receive the energy of her mouth from a great distance. Scent does the same. It expands our body’s immediate personal zone. I am interested in human and animal behavior and our sociological boundaries.
ZB: You have now moved into the olfactory aspect of beauty and sensuality. What led to this pursuit and how has it developed? Will you talk about the perfumes and oils you create?
RH: I have always blended oils for my own use. I was never quite content buying commercial fragrance products that were available. Perfumery and the science of olfactory memory are mysterious and alluring subjects. I read history books, especially about the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, perhaps because my paternal grandparents are Greeks from Ottoman Turkey, also I studied the spice trade and beauty arts. I am especially captivated by the Arabic and Oriental obsession with fragrance. I have created two hand-blended oils. One is Frankincense, Myrrh and Rose Maroc. The other is Amber and Vanilla. They are in handmade aged metalwork bottles. I wanted to make an old world artisanal product in a world of mass market. I only produce a few per year and sell to Barneys and a few select specialty stores and art galleries.
ZB: What other creative endeavors are you involved in?
RH: I recently worked with photographer and filmmaker Iris Brosch on an on-going performance project with our first performance at the Venice Biennale. I did makeup choreography and performance. I am continuing to expand on my makeup projects. I am developing a new scent. I'm still working on performance and film projects. I am also working with a hotel group, to collaborate as lifestyle, design and product consultant for a new spa.
Zora Burden: What type of environment did you grow up in? How did you become interested in the world of fashion and beauty?
Regina Harris: My Mother was a flamenco dancer, and moonlighted as a lounge singer. My aunt was an opera singer. I was learning to play castanets, sing and dance as a toddler. I was surrounded by glamorous costumes and a lot of music. I loved to watch my mother put her makeup on and set her hair every night. I used to mimic her ritual on my favorite doll with crayolas and whatever other makeshift tools I could find. I used every opportunity to play dress up in my mother’s vibrant red lipstick, jewelry and stilettos.
ZB: How did you learn to work within the cosmetic business? Did you attend school or have any formal training?
RH: While I was in high school I was in a special artist program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and another photography program. As a teenage girl, I was obsessed with YSL and VOGUE, especially the Chris Von Wagenheim photos. I took a part time job at a local department store, which evolved into a job in the buyer’s office. After high school, I went to college to study fashion design. After a bit of an exploration to see what was on the other side of the Atlantic, I replaced those old crayolas with real makeup and off I went. I moved quickly from Dept store, to salon then to freelance. I was self taught. The same need for instant artistic gratification that probably drove me to become a makeup artist, kept me from waiting around for my degree. But I am certainly not against pursuing a degree. I believe that you should just keep learning until your heart stops beating. All life experience helps. But I am an observer. I observe details about everyone and everything and absorb it like a sponge and memory bank it for future reference. I have an obsession with classic film and period makeup. I am also a real delving researcher.
ZB: How do you define the art of makeup and cosmetics?
RH: Makeup is a combined form of artistic expression and tribal instinct. I do not believe that women need makeup for improvement. We are fine the way we are.
ZB: For you, is makeup artistry about the concept of creating beauty or manipulating imagery on a canvas?
RH: Both really. I work, for the most part, collaboratively with photographers, filmmakers and fine artists. I tend to think about color in a graphic way first. How color placement will affect the over all image. Also, how it can affect the mood of a story or persona.
ZB: Is the process of the transformation with makeup empowering for you?
RH: The ability to manipulate form is always empowering. I've studied and performed with a Butoh troupe. I am always thinking of ways to manipulate form. Makeup, dance, performance, sculpture, scent.
ZB: How did you become established in the fashion world?
RH: I was lucky. I went to London and worked with great magazines very quickly. I started out by doing some very unconventional projects like creating fairy characters for Tatler Magazine, I body painted the models with horns and antlers that I made of papier mache. And I did a Face magazine cover, where I roughly marked a model’s face with palmistry symbols. Not your typical smoky eye and glossy lip. Shortly after working with British Vogue, ID etc. I started my career working with visionary artists Michael Roberts, Perry Ogden, David Bailey, Ellen Von Unwerth. I really enjoy collaborating with editors, artists, and directors. I started working with a team of directors from London early on like Vaughn Arnell and Anthea Benton. They would make brilliant epic period commercials. Bonnie and Clyde, David and Goliath, Grapes of Wrath. Recently Anthea and I worked on a project creating a surreal rabbit girl. She’s got a fab vision. Runway shows are different because a makeup test is done a few days before. Then you swoop in with a team of 10 assistants and you have 3 hours to get 40 models ready. Some are late coming from other shows minutes before they need to go out on the runway. Some have makeup on from the last show, their faces are sore from getting rubbed, poked and pulled so much. I’m pretty calm or so I’ve been told, so I thrive in the fast paced environment.
ZB: What is your opinion of being a cosmetic artist for high end fashion as compared to the art world?
RH: The division is getting a lot smaller as the two worlds continually embrace each other. I work with fine artists like Marilyn Minter who are courted by the fashion world. Recently we completed projects for Allure and Tom Ford. Many photographers who are known for their fashion and commercial work are also accomplished fine art photographers and so on. I believe now more than ever, one can and should be able to do whatever projects they please, not fall into the constraints of a career label.
ZB: Will you describe the process of your work during a shoot from beginning to end?
RH: My work starts the moment that I get the assignment. Reviewing pics or bios of the subject or model. It’s as important to know their personality, as it is to look at their face. Sometimes prepping and purchasing makeup supplies, phone or personal meetings. Once in a while you have to show up with little or inaccurate information and be ready to do just about anything. The initial makeup usually takes an hour but could be anywhere from 20 minutes based on time restraints of celebrities to 3 hours based intricacies of elaborate makeup. If I think it will be more complicated or more models, I bring in assistants so that I don’t torture my subject. I change and or maintain “the look” throughout the day. Additionally, it is important to be involved in the energy of the shoot in any way. Everyone lends ideas and pitches in; it’s an equal effort. I am there until it’s done. My time is their time. When I worked on the Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3, for example, I was up for about four days straight. We only had the Guggenheim for a short window of time with much to do. We cat napped on the ramps. I carry about 100lbs. plus of equipment with me on a daily basis and an inventory of several hundred items costing thousands of dollars. I keep several suitcases packed and ready to go and a back stock of everything from wigs, beards, several hundred pairs of lashes blood, special effects, and glitter. I have dragged my kit to Greenland, Chile, everywhere.
ZB: How did you make the transition from high fashion to the art world?
RH: I feel that they have always been intertwined for me. Even in my earliest days, I worked with photographers who have developed notoriety as cutting edge artists like photographer Doris Kloster.
ZB: How did you become involved with the Cremaster series?
RH: I worked on several projects with photographer Michael James O’Brien, who was the photographer producing the beautiful art still images for Cremaster Series. I had just finished the Cremaster 4 when Matthew called me and said he was working on Cremaster 5. I knew his work and found the concept fascinating and the imagery compelling. Ursula Andress was to play the Queen in the film. Coincidentally, I was an old friend of her sister Kathe Andress. It was a destined good fit. I really wanted to work with Matthew. His sense of storytelling through film is inspiring.
ZB: What was your experience like working with Matthew Barney for the series?
RH: It was really hard work, long hours and insanely enjoyable. Everyone was tired but good humored, even into the wee hours of filming. There is never a dull moment on a Matthew Barney set. Matthew is down to earth and we had a very talented crew. Gabe Bartolos, the model/prosthetics maker and I collaborated quite often on characters. We all worked together. Sometimes the characters were physically demanding and the talent needed a lot of support.
ZB: How much creative freedom did you have while working on the series?
RH: Matthew is very hands on and detail oriented. So he pays special attention to fine details like hair and makeup. I was doing both. Once he chooses artists to work with him, he trusts their input and instinct. I think our vision of how the characters needed to look was very synchronized.
ZB: Do you have any particular memories while working on the films that you’d like to share?
RH: Well when you work on films and photo shoots you find yourself spending long periods of time in the strangest locations. In the case of Cremaster for instance, climbing a 25 ft. fire ladder to the very tip of the Chrysler and perching on scaffolding for the day while filming a maypole scene. Or spending a magical but frigid cold day on Lanchid bridge in Budapest. Sometimes it’s like living in a dream. Being involved in a project like that is personally enriching. Of course after the Guggenheim Retrospective, people started understanding what I had been working on. Until then most people, even those that were fans had never actually seen the films because they had limited engagements.
ZB: You also worked on the Andy Warhol Retrospective with the mannequins. How did this project come about?
RH: Simon Doonan was in charge of recreating the Warhol windows for the Whitney. The wardrobe stylist, Joe Delate recommended me. That’s how our business usually works, usually referrals.
ZB: Will you describe the work you did for that project?
RH: I had to take mannequins and repaint their facial features, paint in makeup and wigs. They were from all different periods. Two mannequins looked 1930’s and one or two looked like later 1960’s Barbie. Someone had been there before me and mucked it up a bit. So I had to work over it. It was great fun working with Simon. I have always had the desire to work on display windows. And what New Yorker doesn’t love Warhol? He’s Iconic. In the film and art world it is common that a makeup artist makes design choices for the entire look. Directors and artists usually like to speak to one person to get a unified concept. In fashion you are working on projects for very short periods of time. Advertising campaigns with millions of dollars at stake are sometimes shot within a few hour time frame. It serves the project better to have separate hair and makeup artists.
ZB: Are there any other major projects you’ve done in the art community?
RH: I have collaborated quite often with an artist and storyteller Elisa Jimenez, who I met that hand makes clothing. She found out that I also danced. I would dance in her performance pieces after I did makeup for the other muses. I performed at Holly Soloman Gallery wearing just glitter.
ZB: With the art world, especially the surrealism of the Cremaster series, do you feel confined when working with traditional beauty? Does it limit the creative process?
RH: I have never felt confined by classical beauty. My inclination has always been to offer the world more intriguing interpretations. People need new information. They don’t need to see what they already know.
ZB: Did your work with anatomy via makeup and body painting lead to your interest in sculpture? What sculpture work have you done?
RH: I did a photo shoot for Ike Ude’s Arude, in which we used transparent amorphous face and headpieces I created for the model with the idea of altering the face and head without using conventional makeup techniques. Elisa Jimenez saw my headpieces and asked me to make a sculpture for a performance she was doing. I created a Body Pod in a standing pool to fit Tara Subkoff. D’Amelio Terras Gallery used it for their exhibition. It was wet and dewy and breathing. It was made of plastic, water and glycerin. Again extending body energy past the confines of the physical body. When you think about it, even lipstick does that. If you see a red lip on a woman you receive the energy of her mouth from a great distance. Scent does the same. It expands our body’s immediate personal zone. I am interested in human and animal behavior and our sociological boundaries.
ZB: You have now moved into the olfactory aspect of beauty and sensuality. What led to this pursuit and how has it developed? Will you talk about the perfumes and oils you create?
RH: I have always blended oils for my own use. I was never quite content buying commercial fragrance products that were available. Perfumery and the science of olfactory memory are mysterious and alluring subjects. I read history books, especially about the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, perhaps because my paternal grandparents are Greeks from Ottoman Turkey, also I studied the spice trade and beauty arts. I am especially captivated by the Arabic and Oriental obsession with fragrance. I have created two hand-blended oils. One is Frankincense, Myrrh and Rose Maroc. The other is Amber and Vanilla. They are in handmade aged metalwork bottles. I wanted to make an old world artisanal product in a world of mass market. I only produce a few per year and sell to Barneys and a few select specialty stores and art galleries.
ZB: What other creative endeavors are you involved in?
RH: I recently worked with photographer and filmmaker Iris Brosch on an on-going performance project with our first performance at the Venice Biennale. I did makeup choreography and performance. I am continuing to expand on my makeup projects. I am developing a new scent. I'm still working on performance and film projects. I am also working with a hotel group, to collaborate as lifestyle, design and product consultant for a new spa.