Photo: Vicky Clerici

Many of us have talents and have things we aspire to be, but for reasons, don’t take that talent and follow their dreams. Vicky Clerici is definitely not one of those people. Being creative in a hands-on way has always been a passion and combined with a love for the horror genre, she has pursued different avenues to hone her skills in the makeup FX and mask-making world in an effort to one day be able to do this full time.

“In the beginning, I was into making my own horror movies, making practical effects. I watched a lot of horror movies, so I was figuring it out on my own. Eventually, I realized I needed some help so I started researching schools,” Clerici said.

After Cleric took a road trip to Dubois, Pennsylvania, to check out John Russo’s Movie Making Academy, she eventually decided to go to Vancouver Film School for makeup effects for film and television and ended her year with an internship with Todd Masters at MastersFX. Once she returned home to Montreal in 2011, she really dove headfirst into her craft, with a little help from a friend.

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Photo: Vicky Clerici

“Todd Masters was sweet enough to help me out,” remembers Clerici. “He knew a guy in Montreal, Adrien Morot, so I started working behind the scenes, making costumes, a lot of foam latex stuff, and that’s when I started getting my little studio going at home. I always wanted to make scary shit, make masks, so that’s how it began, and I really haven’t stopped.”

The interest in making masking really began after Clerici snuck into a theater to see Halloween: H20 and got to see Michael Myers on the big screen for the first time. However, it is not just a love affair with the horror genre and making masks that got Clerici this far. It is also dedication and long hours, as the masks she constructs, either to simply replenish her stock of iconic characters or do specific commissions, is extremely time-consuming and very detailed work. The sculpting, pouring, and painting may be a labor of love but very heavy on the labor, especially when you are working a full-time job as well.

“Right now, the whole process can take about a month to complete, as I’m working full time. If I’m doing a commission of something original, I will ask for some pictures and designs and then go right to the clay. I’ll sculpt it with clay, then make a cement mold on top, then comes the pouring of latex. It’s very time-consuming and not that glamorous, but the hands-on stuff, I love it. After that is the painting and sometimes stitches or hair, depending on what the client wants. It’s a constant learning process too, getting better as you do it more often, changing materials, chemicals, and even the environment has an effect on the work. The place I’m in now is colder, so it changes how long it takes it part of the process to dry.”

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Photo: Vicky Clerici

Obviously, the horror genre lends itself to some great ideas, both classic monsters, and people’s own imaginations, in terms of creating masks. For Vicky, her love of the horror genre started like many others did, at a young age, discovering something vivid, dark, disturbing, and truly fascinating.

“At an early age, there were a couple of moments for me that had a huge impact in terms of getting turned on to horror. Watching The Making of Thriller, the Michael Jackson video, was a real eye-opener for me. Also, I went on a trip to Ottawa with the family, I was 8 or 9, and at my cousin’s neighbor’s place, I discovered that the parents had a kick-ass horror collection. In the pile of VHS tapes was where I found The Evil Dead and that scene with the pencil in the ankle? I watched that again and again and I was fascinated, not just at the violence but how the hell did they do that? So yeah, those two things really spurred on my love of horror, for sure.”

It’s been a tough year for artists, with no shows or conventions happening for them to show off/sell their work, and Clerici is no exception. However, she has had a huge upswing in online business the last year-and-a-half, giving her confidence to show off more of her work and the process online. Now she is looking to the future, hoping things open up and she can delve deeper into her love of mask making.

Photo: Vicky Clerici

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“I have so much footage of my work, so I’m using that to try and grow my YouTube channel to help support my materials, but I’m really pushing to try and be able to do this full time. I’ve always done this while working a full-time job and it’s bananas sometimes, man. I’ve always just plowed through, saying fuck it, I’ll sleep when I’m dead! But then you hit that wall, have those moments where you find yourself falling asleep sitting up. (Laughs) When I was working full-time in those effects shops, doing on-set work too, I realized I was beginning to lose my passion as I was too exhausted when I got home to enjoy doing what I really loved, my real passion. I want to create these things, have other people buy them, wear them, take great pictures, put them in movies, I love that, I thrive off of that.”

You can check out Clerici’s website here and get a glimpse of how she creates her masks on her YouTube channel.

Photo: Vicky Clerici
Photo: Vicky Clerici

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1 COMMENT

  1. vicki is awesomene, i been following her work on facebook for a while now, and she is so awesome at what she does, cant wait till she makes it big time and is creating creatures full for a movie studio or something, she is amazing

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