MAKEUP AND MIMOSAS ALL AROUND.
THE
MAKEUP ARTIST By Josephine Johnson | Photos by Drew Hyland
urling irons, makeup trays, coffee cups and plastic cups — mimosas (or plain orange juice) all around — clutter the long, wood table inside the hotel conference room. Around the table sit seven young women wrapped in purple robes embroidered “bridesmaid.” A hairstylist makes the rounds, and some of the women apply their own makeup. Bride Katrina Sepulveda sits on a taller chair at the table as makeup artist Maria Brandon applies color to her lips and around her eyes and then works a subtle magic on her face with an airbrush. Sepulveda, a natural
beauty, does not regularly wear makeup, and certainly not the spray-on kind. That’s not practical for day-to-day — unless of course you’re on set in Hollywood. But it’s perfect for special occasions when you want to look refined and flawless. And it’s a perfect medium for an artist like Brandon, who had wanted to pursue art since childhood but put it off for years because it didn’t seem “practical.” Brandon grew up in Red Bluff, Calif., where she spent much of her childhood painting landscapes, designing dresses and sketching portraits of her friends and family. She fell in love with graphite and the airbrush. By her
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18 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • WEDDING & PARTY GUIDE 2014
senior year, she had been awarded all three of her high school’s top art scholarships and was voted most likely to move to the city. She seriously considered it: She could pursue an art education in the city, and a career. But pragmatism got the better of her. Growing up with five siblings, Brandon learned early the importance of being thrifty and saving money. Art school didn’t seem like something that would prepare her for a lucrative career in her small community. So she earned an AA in business at Shasta College in Redding, and became Shasta County’s lead account auditor. “It definitely paid the bills,” Brandon says.