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Makeup artist with alopecia inspires young girl to remove her hat in public for first time

"If this brave 10-year-old can face her fears, you can too."

abbywrenartistry/Instagram

Young girl with alopecia removes her hat in public for first time.

Makeup has the incredible ability to transform and empower. For makeup artist Abby Wren (@abbywrenartistry), her art and alopecia diagnosis changed the life of another special young girl with alopecia named Elyssa.

In a touching video shared by Wren, Elyssa shared the heartwarming story about how the two connected during a one-on-one glam session.

"Today was Elyssa’s FIRST time bald in public!! 🥹," she captioned the post. "I am SO incredibly proud of her courage all day long, and so grateful we caught this special moment together where she bravely pulled off her hat for the first time around other people."

In the video, Elyssa sits across from Wren as she dips her brush into her makeup palette to begin. The two chat, and Wren asks Elyssa if she wants to take her hat off so she can have more space and access to apply while also encouraging her not to be ashamed of her lack of hair. "I don't know. I'm not sure," Elyssa replies wearily. With love and understanding, Wren responds, "You know that it's totally a safe space if you want to take it off."

Although she's encouraged, Elyssa is still unsure. So, Wren adds, "Feel it out. Feel it out. No pressure either way." The man behind the camera comments on how cool Elyssa's brightly colored sweatshirt is, and Wren agrees. "I know, it's so cool. I love it," she says.

Without a moment's notice, Elyssa decides to take off her hat and proudly display her beautiful, bald head. "Yay! My girl, now we're twins," Wren says. "High-five! Girl, I'm so proud of you. That's really, really rad." In a caption within the video, Wren writes, "me: trying to play it cool and not overwhelm her, but freaking out inside. SO proud of her!"

Wren continues to chat with Elyssa as she applies neon green eyeshadow to her. Elyssa replies, "Thank you!" And Wren cannot contain her joy. "We're twins now! So cool! I love it!" The video pans to the two posing together after her glam sesh is complete. Wren added a mushroom and frog to Elyssa's cheeks for a cool-girl final look.

In the caption, Wren shared more about how her interaction with Elyssa impacted her mom. "Her sweet mom and I had an emotional chat later and reflected on how powerful this Alopecia community is, and how important it is to CELEBRATE being different!" she added. "If this brave 10 year old can face her fears, you can too. Forever inspired by these amazing babes! 💗"

And her viewers are ecstatic about the uplifting moment between the two:

"This is incredible. You could just see her confidence grow as she sat with you. I bet she holds onto this interaction for the rest of her life 🩷"

"You are a sweetheart! She trusted you with her insecurities and you helped her be brave. I love this. 💞👏👏."

"Way to go Elyssa!! You are so beautiful and your courage has me in tears. My baby boy also has AT and he owns it, you are an inspiration 🥰."

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Health

Artist beautifully illustrates the transformative power of turning toward fear

In just six images, Cécile Carre captures what therapy for fear and anxiety can do.

Cécile Carre/Facebook

Fear is a finicky beast.

When my oldest daughter was in the deepest throes of a clinical phobia, her fear overtook everything. She practically became a hermit at 16, afraid to go anywhere. Thankfully, we found an excellent therapist who taught her how to tame her fear, to gently manage it, to approach it in such a way that allowed it to dissipate instead of continuing to dominate her every thought.

People who struggle with anxiety or fear, whether it stems from trauma or wonky brain wiring, understand how overwhelming it can be. Fear and anxiety can feel incapacitating at times, making you want to run far away or curl into the tiniest ball and disappear. But neither of those things actually helps. In fact, the first thing my daughter's therapist told her is that avoidance always make anxiety worse.


Instead, she taught my daughter to approach that fearful voice in her head. After all, that voice was hers, and it desperately wanted to be heard and understood. Ignoring it, avoiding it, trying to distract it way simply made it yell louder. "Maybe you're right," she would say to that voice, even though it terrified her to do so. "Maybe you're right, and maybe you're wrong. Let's just wait and see what happens"—that became her mantra to her own brain, and as counterintuitive as it seemed, it worked.

I could explain the science of the amygdala—the fight-or-flight center of the brain that acts on instinct—and why the "Maybe you're right" approach helped retrain it not to overreact. But an artist has created a visual series that describes it in different terms that may resonate more with people who have experienced embracing fear.

Cécile Carre posted her series of paintings about fear on Facebook and they've been shared more than 12,000 times. As with any art, interpretations will naturally vary, but judging from the comments, people dealing with anxiety, fear, or unhealed trauma may find some truth in it.

The first image shows a girl curled in a fetal position with her back to a big, scary monster bearing down on her, with a word painted beneath it.

"Everyday..."

As the girl turns and faces the monster, it immediately looks less scary. Still big, still towering over her, but not terrifying.

"...Trying..."

As the girl walks toward the monster, she starts looking bigger. The monster transforms into a mirror image of herself, the terror of it literally melting away.

"...to watch..."

And then it becomes a child looking for comfort rushing into her arms. Even its color begins to blend with her own.

"...and embrace..."

And then a baby, purely in need of nurturing, wrapped lovingly in her arms.

"...my fear..."

And then...nothing. Just a simple, calm little diamond where the girl was.

"...until it disappears completely..."

The work of turning toward what you fear is not simple or easy, and it may take therapy, medication, or other methods to treat mental illness effectively. But this series of paintings shows what many experience when they stop avoiding and start approaching the roaring voice that tells them to be afraid. Though it's thoroughly terrifying to make that initial turn—I saw it in my own daughter, and it took a lot of effort—seeing the beast shrink down and eventually disappear is an incredible gift.

Thank you, Cécile Carre, for illustrating that so beautifully. You can order her prints here.


This article originally appeared on 03.06.20

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Identity

'Pyrography' artist makes hyper realistic portraits on wood using only fire and razorblades

Alex Peter Idoko/Twitter

Alex Peter Idoko's portraits made from fire are incredible.

Creating art is possibly the most uniquely human thing people do, and some of us do it exceptionally well. Just when it seems like humans couldn't possibly come up with more inventive ways to express the artistic impulse, someone comes along to surprise us. What is more fun than being blown away by artists who master various art forms and find new methods and mediums to create with?

Enter Alex Peter Idoko's pyrography art.

Pyrography literally means writing or drawing with fire, and Idoko makes incredibly realistic "paintings" on wood with a blow torch, sandpaper, razorblades and charcoal. The final pieces are almost unbelievable, and watching his process in action is equally mind-blowing.

Idoko is a self-taught pyrography artist from Nigeria and his works focus on "writing, rebranding, and editing the Black story," both on the African continent and beyond. He portrays issues and challenges that surround Black people and also provides positive images for the next generation to look to for inspiration.

His pieces make powerful statements, in addition to being artistically impressive. I mean, if most of us took a blowtorch to a piece of wood, it certainly wouldn't result in something like this:

Some of his works are hyperrealistic, looking nearly indistinguishable from a photograph. The fact that he can create something like this by burning, sanding and scraping wood is just beyond.

Idoko has shared some glimpses into his process, which usually involves burning a wood canvas to create dark shades, then using sandpaper and razorblades to create lighter shades. He utilizes those tools along with charcoal to create minute details such as skin pores and water droplets as well.

Idoko shares his work on Instagram as well as his website, where he has a blog explaining the intent and meaning behind many of his pieces.

Below is the final version of the piece he was working on above, which the caption on Instagram describes as a woman "dressed in a royal regalia and adorned with beautiful jewelries of cowries and beads with the poise of a Queen which doubtless marks her a member of a royal family."

The caption says the piece "compels viewers to understand that there is an unwritten history in history that is visible to all that wants to see, he also enables all to see that Africans ancient and present were not and are not cowards, barbaric or lazy as the history might document."

Check out more examples of his works and his process:

Just utterly incredible. You can find and follow Alex Peter Idoko's work on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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Self-taught artist makes hyperrealistic portraits with just a basic Bic ballpoint pen

Oscar Ukonu/Instagram, Art Insider/YouTube

Maybe it's because I'm a writer, but I'm a bit of a pen snob. Even if I'm just making a list, I look for a pen that grips well, flows well, doesn't put too much or too little ink into the paper, is responsive-but-not-too-responsive to pressure, and doesn't suddenly stop working mid-stroke.

In other words, the average cheap ballpoint pen is out. (See? Snob.)

However, Oscar Ukono is making me reevaluate my pen snobbery. Because while I'm over here turning up my nose at the basic Bic, he's using them to create things like this:

Um, yeah.

Ukonu is a self-taught artist from Lagos, Nigeria, who creates hyperrealistic portraits using just a Bic ballpoint pen. And not the fancy kind—the super simple clear ones with the pointy lids you buy in a 12-pack because you know you're going to lose half of them around the house anyway.

His drawings look like blue-washed photographs, but they're all hand-drawn with a Bic. (Or more accurately, with around 10 Bics, since the nubs start to wear down as he uses them.) How he makes the most average ballpoint pen strokes do what he does seems like nothing short of magic—even when you watch him do it in real-time.

The techniques he uses are pretty standard—hatching (parallel lines), crosshatching (perpendicular lines), and scribbling (basically what it sounds like). But he uses them on a minutely detailed level, working from multiple photos of the same subject, and the result is portraiture that looks so real it's almost surreal.

Artist Draws Hyperrealistic Portraits Using Bic Ballpoint Pensyoutu.be

Ukonu began his journey with hyperrealism when he was in architecture school and fell in love with ballpoint after feeling unsatisfied with the ink pens he was using. "I spent a lot of time looking at different mediums and drawing tools," he told Vsionvry. "But the first time I tried the ballpoint pen that was in 2014, and it just clicked..."

According to his website, Ukonu "explores black identity and pride in an increasingly globalized world, as well as ideas surrounding Afrorealism" in his art. (Afrorealism is a movement that straddles optimism and pessimism about Africa, with a genuine acknowledgment of the difficulties facing the continent and the placement of Africans in the central role of its development.)

Ukonu calls his work "a practice in time and patience" with an average piece taking him somewhere between 200 to 400 hours to complete. That time and patience pays off as prints of his work—not the originals, just prints—can sell for up to $600.

That braid he's working on in the video? That was this. With a Bic ballpoint. How?


And the newspaper wrapped around the woman's head? He has a whole series of pieces that feature that concept, which he calls "THE DISINFORMATION OF A REPUBLIC."



If you're new to hyperrealistic art, it's similar to—and has its roots in—photorealism, a style in which someone draws exactly what they see in a photo. But instead of drawing a direct copy of a photograph, hyperreal artists use photos only as a reference. That's why the video explained that Ukonu used around 20 photographs (out of hundreds taken) to draw one of his pieces. Rather than an exact replica of a single photograph, the final product is a wholly unique image, even though it looks like it could be a photograph.

It's common for hyperrealists to evoke emotional, social, cultural, and political meanings in their works, which shows clearly in Ukonu's art. And the fact that he can create such beautiful images with a cheap, disposable Bic ballpoint is proof that the talent of the artist is more important than the quality of the tools. (A truth that I will keep in mind when I reach for a pen for any purpose after seeing this.)

You can find more of Ukono's work on Instagram and on his website.

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