Felix Stein: “The purpose of art is to expand boundaries”

The article was first published in Makeup&YOU Professional magazine.

What made you change your field of activity so radically? Was it a spontaneous decision or perhaps the world of beauty has been interesting to you for a long time? Let's start with the fact that nothing has changed. The cook decorated the dishes, the makeup artist decorated the faces. Everything happened quite by accident, I never dreamed of getting into the world of makeup, I didn’t even think about it. But when I accidentally ended up at a makeup school, I realized: “Yes, this is mine!” And having become a makeup artist, I was finally convinced of this. You drew parallels with the work of a chef - you used to decorate dishes, now you decorate faces. Do you still have any emotions from your previous activity? And has your experience as a chef influenced your work as a makeup artist? Yes. As a chef, I tried to decorate dishes in an unconventional way. When it comes to makeup, I am also inclined to experiment and do not try to adapt to any formats. What is your main source of inspiration? Nature. What nature has done, no one has yet been able to create. Look at parrots or decorative fish - what bright, unique, sometimes non-standard colors they combine! Blue, red, yellow, green... Therefore, my first teacher is nature. The second is my students. Each of them has their own world and their own approach. When I offer students the same topic, each of them implements it differently, no one will repeat after me or others... I always look around me - if you are careful, you can find many different objects for inspiration very close by. Even a simple napkin can become this! You don’t need to look specifically, just open your eyes. Beauty surrounds us - look from a different angle and you will definitely see it. You've been teaching for quite a long time, but do you remember your first students? Do you know where they are now, what they are doing? Of course, I remember and know what’s going on with them. I opened my school twenty years ago. But I still haven’t forgotten my very first students, and all the subsequent ones, although I had several thousand of them. I am in touch with them, we constantly correspond, call each other, they consult with me. We become like one friendly family, we empathize with failures together and rejoice for each other. What achievements of your students are you most proud of? When they become independent and successful, they open their own schools, create their own lines of cosmetics, and publish their work in fashion magazines. Has it ever happened that you managed to find a talent that was very deeply hidden in the most modest and seemingly completely unpromising student? Yes, I have such an example. A guy who was a carpenter came to me and said he wanted to be a makeup artist. I looked at him - not a makeup artist at all, plump, with small hands, short fingers... He also said: “I’m already forty years old, I don’t have time to rock myself, I want to be a good makeup artist right away.” Initially, I had a slightly biased opinion towards him. It’s one thing for seventeen-year-old girls or boys who still have time to think and make up their minds. But it turned out that life experience reduces the time for acceleration. I took this guy quite seriously, and he himself was very diligent and very stubborn. This character trait helped him. Now he already has his own school and his own line of cosmetics, he is a very advanced person. I am proud that he is my student who learned everything from “A” to “Z” from me. He took both hairdressing courses and a full make-up and make-up course. He has many different nominations. He wanted to become part of the world of beauty, was eager to gain knowledge, took all the lessons, training, etc. seriously, and, despite my skepticism, achieved success. After that, I told myself that it’s not for me to decide who gets to be a makeup artist, it’s not for me to evaluate what kind of makeup artist this will be. Even if at first glance a person has no talent, but he really wants to succeed and sees himself in this business, he will definitely achieve his goal. A makeup artist is first a psychologist, and only then an artist. We work with people, if you don’t know how to work with people and don’t understand all the psychological aspects of this work, you won’t be a good makeup artist. In fact, everything is much deeper than it seems. It is important what books a person read as a child, what museums he went to, what his parents gave him when communicating with each other, how he sees the world, what his goals are. So, you didn’t have any cases when you refused your students? Were! I don't teach one person at a time, it happens very rarely. I teach mostly small groups of 10-15 people. When a girl comes to me for a recording session, she, for example, is very unkemptly dressed, does not look like a future makeup artist, she has something in her that can let the whole team down - market speech or inappropriate behavior - then I refuse her. After all, we should all feel comfortable and enjoy the educational process, be like one family. You work in different areas of the beauty industry - teaching, collaboration with glossy magazines and Fashion Week. Which of these things brings you the most pleasure at this creative stage and why? It’s difficult for me to distribute and put it all in some place. At this stage, what inspires me most is working for myself, as they say, “on the table.” When I create an image, I don’t think about where it will go or why I’m doing it. Ask the artist: why does he paint? This will be a very incorrect question for him - he lives like this, he cannot breathe without creating something. I draw and create for myself, and where it will go is the second, third, fourth, tenth question. Which stars have you worked with, and what were your impressions? I really like Tamara Gverdtsiteli, I love working with Kristina Orbakaite. I perceive stars as ordinary people, and they behave the same way with me. We are just two specialists from different fields who collaborate together. You said that a makeup artist should be a psychologist. Many makeup artists in their interviews shared the secrets of communicating with particularly capricious clients, and stars quite often fell into this category. When you work with artists, do you have some kind of individual approach to them? I show them that they are ordinary clients for me. At the same time, I treat any of my clients with respect - be it a minister, a pop star or a ballet star. If you don't like a client, can you refuse him? Or if he demands makeup that clearly doesn’t suit him? If a client demands, for example, a dark contour and light lipstick, this is taboo for me. I explain to the client why this is so, and usually he agrees with me. By releasing the created image into the world, I put a conditional seal that I agree with it. All my clients know that I will not do what they want, we will talk and reflect until we find common ground. I don't do my makeup to make it look cheap. But I have never had such cases where I refused a client - they always came to a consensus. What do you mean by cheap-looking makeup? The contour on the lips makes any girl's makeup look cheaper. If for theater or cinema I need to create the image of a cheap prostitute, I will do shaded dirty shadows under the eyes, a clear correction of the face with pink blush, and be sure to have a clear lip line and I will get the desired heroine. But I will not create such a style and image for a girl in another situation, even if they offer me a lot of money. My image as a master is worth more. Do you have style standards among women and men? Audrey Hepburn, of course. I think the look I created for her is incredibly elegant. Among makeup artists, I like those people who have their own style. The fact is that a creative makeup artist, and I consider myself one of the creative makeup artists, is about courage and creating emotions. Our makeup is worth nothing if it does not give some kind of emotion - passion, love, a smile, and sometimes even something negative. If makeup doesn’t evoke any feelings, you can safely “throw it in the trash.” You have quite scandalous works with naked parts of the body, which were shown at several exhibitions... Tell us about them. These works were created to be shocking. My first twelve works were bought by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Elite (Israel) and equipped a separate room for them. If you pay closer attention to these works, you will see that there is not a drop of eroticism in them. When I did an exhibition in Austria, a record number of people visited it. Now I have more than fifty such works, I post them on social networks to see people’s reactions, and, basically, it’s not “what a horror,” but “oh, how great!” When a child is born, he is open to everything, he has no inhibitions. Society always puts us in some kind of framework. The purpose of art is to expand these boundaries. My goal as a makeup artist, and therefore a person of art, is the same. Vilnius is your historical homeland. How has this city influenced you? I was born in Vilnius, and I believe that this city is an open-air museum. This is my favorite city of all the cities I've been to. And this mood, its “museum quality,” its, let’s say, figurativeness influenced me as a makeup artist and artist. But not because of my outrageousness. Shocking is something else. I don't think it has anything to do with my birth in Vilnius. Some artists prefer to work with lips, some with facial sculpture, some with eyes. Do you have any preferences? I love working with models in general. Why don't I paint on canvas or paper? Because when I work with a person and create some kind of image, we have contact. We do this together. Man is a living being. He breathes, moves, reacts to my touch. By what external and psychological parameters do you choose models? This should be a model girl with small eyes and a sophisticated nose. We must match our personalities and find common ground. That is, there must be some kind of chemistry between us, due to which good work will come out. Without this chemistry, the work will not work, because it will not be interesting to me. What would you wish for Ukrainian makeup artists and what advice would you give them? A wish not only to makeup artists, but to all girls. Makeup without a sparkle in the eyes does nothing. If you put beautiful makeup on a girl with a dull look, it still won’t beautify her. First of all, get up early in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror, smile, create a good mood for yourself - then the day will be successful and happy.