This Celebrity Makeup Artist Left NYC for the Quiet Life in Maine: Meet Nikki Fontaine

I have with me a member of our Portland art gallery team and also artist in her own right. Nikki Fontain. Thanks for coming in. Thank You. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here, Nikki. I love all of, of the different things you have done in your life. Oh, thank you for saying that. Yeah, you've you've, you've done everything. You've been a makeup artist. You are a artist on paper. You, um, you've been in New York, you've been in Maine. You have a family background in film. I mean, you're, you're married to someone who has a music background. I mean, I feel like you've got a lot of bases covered. We're a very artistic, creative family. It's kind of how, how I grew up was very, you know, everything was about creativity and, um, creativity was really nurtured and my house was, I'm so grateful for now that I've gone into the world and met so many different artists and so many different people. And, you know, we all come from so many different journeys. I feel really grateful to have the journey that I had and have the parents that I had that really encouraged myself and my brother and still are, are champions of our art and all the multi different creative practices that we embark on. Yeah. Where did you grow up? So I grew up in rural, Massachusetts, um, right outside of, well, I guess it's kind of considered Western Massachusetts. Some people say, but it's, uh, little town called Charlton. Um, it's about an hour from Boston, an hour west of Boston. Um, it's a very small farming town and my dad actually built, uh, this house in the middle of the woods that we lived in. And I, it was, you know, in the middle of two farms, I used to tell people to come down, come down the road, past the cows and the chicken when you've hit the LAAS, you've gone too far. So yeah, we just lived in this really, you know, beautiful house that my father built. He was a video producer. Um, so he had a studio in our house, so it was constantly, you know, people coming over to record and do voiceovers and he would make commercials. And then my brother and I, who were really into makeup and characters and effects and, um, yeah, just nice little life we had there and that little, that little small cutout of central Massachusetts. So when you say you were into characters and effects, tell, tell me about some of the, the things that you used to do as children. I mean, I, most people are like, oh, you know, I was on the soccer team, but that's a different thing you're saying, yeah, that was Not us. We were, we were much more, um, the artsy kids that I think everyone was like, what are these kids doing? And thankfully, like I said, my parents were super supportive of it cuz my dad is also, my dad was also a painter, um, an oil painter and he was incredible. But again, multidisciplinary artist, but he was a film collector. So from a young age, my brother and I, Mike, we, we were really exposed to film. So we loved watching how these characters transformed and themselves. And we loved watching the behind the scenes. And when my brother was around four years old, my dad showed him Michael Jackson's thriller, which he got a, you know, a lot of flack for later in life because it's a little bit of a scary video and he was a four year old, but Mike loved it and he just constantly wanted to make himself up into these monsters. And, and I was really enthralled by, you know, Lauren Beau and Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn and all of these beautiful women that I would see in my dad's films and how they would make themselves up and make themselves into these amazing characters. So I always wanted to do the beauty side of it. So I mean, we had makeup and costumes and clothes all over our house constantly. And I would always be, you know, making the beautiful side of things and my brother would be making the monsters. And then we would put on these little skits and movies and my father would film it and we would, we would edit it. And that's, that's kind of where it all started. So once you let your, it sounds like a very kind of, um, kind of protected and creative environment from when you were growing up. Yes. Um, and went to New York. Um, how did you manage that transition? It seems like you went from kind of a controlled space to a big possibly chaotic. Um, what was that like? You know, New York is New York is a beast. It's actually really funny. My brother and I always planned on going to California when we got outta high school. And he ended up meeting up with, um, this really amazing makeup artist who was a lot of films at the time. And my brother left one day to, to go visit for the weekend, visit New York. And he didn't come back for two years. So he was out there and I would constantly go out there and visit him. And he would be working on these films and these commercials and every now and again, he'd say, you know, we need a beauty makeup artist. Why don't you come on set and, and do this? So I would kind of travel back and forth. And at that time, my parents had moved to Florida and I was living by myself in Massachusetts and it got to the point where it didn't really make sense for me to be in Massachusetts anymore. And so when I moved to New York fulltime, I did have some, you know, some base, a network of people. I had some jobs that I had already worked and, um, but I still needed to kind of carve out my own freelance career. And that was tough. It, I had to have a lot of perseverance. And like you said, leaving that kind of creative bubble and being in this city where everybody's creative, everybody can do these amazing things. How do you set yourself apart? Um, and there's, there's one thing that I always come back to is it's, it's an intersection of, can you be creative and have a voice and be skilled at what you do, be prepared and be skilled, but can you also show up and be kind, be compassionate, be someone that people want to have on set because you're spending a lot of time with these people. Can you make people feel comfortable? That's a big part of being on set, being a makeup artist is there's a lot of chaos around you. There's a lot of moving parts. Like, can you be a good person that people wanna work with? And I think that foundation that my brother and I both had brought us just as far as our skill of treating people well and being someone that people wanted to have around Is that a common approach, our, our, our most people in your field, a making an effort to be kind and creating a, a safe and welcoming space for the people they're working with, The people that I like to keep company with. For sure. Yeah. I've met that's that's the whole beauty of working on set is you meet these people that, I mean, still to this day, some of the talent that I've worked with are my close, close friends. I mean, I just did some of my, one of my clients got married last year and her career is blossoming now she's, um, one of the lead correspondence on E news and she had this beautiful Nashville wedding and yeah, she, I mean, these, the people that I think, because I kind of put that energy out there, I attract those kinds of people in my life. Of course, there's people that don't have that approach, but I try to let those people, you know, kind of do their own thing and, and find, find my groups. Yeah. That's a really, that's a really important thing to, to know that everybody has the right to be who they are, but the people that you prefer to have in your sphere that make you who you are, to some extent, they're the ones that you're gonna choose and you're gonna have them be a certain way. Yeah. The people that you know helped me because there was a lot of people that helped me get to the position that I was in. I had an amazing mentor, um, make up artist. Uh, his name is Dick Smith. He's kind of credited as being the godfather of makeup. Um, my brother, when he was 10 years old, really wanted to call Dick Smith and ask him about movie makeup and monster makeup. And my dad had said, you know, if you, if you get an a on your math test, you can call. And I forget how he had gotten the number, but my brother is just this, you know, he's kind of an enigmatic person. And you know, this little 10 year old calls up Dick Smith and says, you know, I wanna learn about monsters. And Dick was like, okay, I guess. And you know, it was kind of unheard of at the time, he's kind of a legend in our industry, but he really loved us and took us under his wing and taught my brother all about monsters and how to make, make monsters and movies. But he was also a beauty makeup artist and he was credited with, uh, creating Audrey Hepburn's iconic eyebrows. And I remember being a little kid and him sitting me down and teaching me how to do it. And he became a really close family friend and we would go on family vacations together, but he always told us it was about passing the torch. Like if you know how to do something, you teach other people, you welcome come other people in and between him and then Mike Marino, who's the owner of prosthetic Renaissance, um, in New York city who he was another one that is still is like a brother to me. He took Mike and I under his wing and really like gave us the opportunity to work on these bigger jobs and took us, really took us in and just all of these people that I've had along the way that have been kind and compassionate and champions of, of my art and my creativity. And I've been really fortunate to find that. And I, I try to also, you know, live that way and do that and think about, you know, the other people that I'm around. And am I putting out that kind of kind as well? So when you're, as you're talking, I'm thinking, um, like every kind of art, there's so much about being a makeup artist that I really have never been exposed to. So what you're saying is that beauty makeup and being a beauty makeup artist is sort of one part of the field sounds like maybe, I don't know, monsters effects is that It's special effects. Yes. Special effects. That's another very specific, um, place. What, what are other types of specialties within makeup? Well, I think it's very, it, it can be very nuanced, you know, or it can be, I think those are kind of the two, the two main categories of, you know, are you doing beauty? Are you doing glam? Are you doing editorial? Are you doing TV? Um, the things that my brother does are more prosthetic makeup. Like he just finished filming Batman. He did the, the penguin. Um, he was in London during quarantine, which was interesting. He had to quarantine in London, but the things that I did we're yeah, more beauty centralized. And I was doing a lot of daytime TV. I was, um, the makeup department head of a television show. Um, so I would get the hosts ready and which was also wonderful and, and really fun to have that relationship with someone of your're getting them ready every day before they go on camera. Um, and then the other thing that I really loved that I did in New York was working on this show called style code live, um, through Amazon studios. And it was really, it gave me an opportunity because I would go do on, on air segments every week. And I would create a beauty look and a beauty trend. Um, and then I would go on, on live TV and demo it. And I got to work with these amazing, you know, beauty producers and beauty editors and put the segments together and really project the trends and think about what we were putting other, what we wanted to show and having access to these products. And it was really a wonderful time. And then there's also an intersection of special effects in beauty makeup, which my brother and I worked on the Heidi Clem Halloween costumes, which was a lot of putting beauty makeup over prosthetics, which is something that hasn't been done a lot. And there was months of us just work, shopping it and figuring it out. So even from working together at a young age, we got to then kind of grow and in our careers work together and they always kind of intersect. There's always those, those special projects where there's that intersection of prosthetics and, and beauty make, or, you know, people call it straight makeup, which is like day makeup. Um, you know, it's not glam, it's just making people look camera ready. So, yeah. Do you feel like there's been more of a call for the work that you have done in the past? Um, because we've gone to this very zoom forward world where, or everybody seems to be on camera a lot of the time. Yeah. That's actually a really great question. I haven't thought much about that. I know, you know, when, when Instagram came out and people were really into doing the beauty looks and YouTube and watching the beauty makeup and that's, that's to answer your previous question, that's a whole different kind of makeup too. That's very glam and very put on and character centric. Um, I know there was a shift then, but it's interesting. The pandemic kind of stopped our whole industry because, you know, film shut down production, shut down. Uh, the show I was working on shut down, which is what brought us to Maine. He said, okay, well, let's, you know, go hang out in Dan Mascota for a little bit and just let this blow over for a few weeks. Little, do we know two years later, we now live in Portland? So, yeah, it's, it's interesting. I haven't, I haven't noticed so much of people being interested in beauty makeup, um, for zoom, but that might be a good business idea. Well, I think you're right. I think a lot of people thought, oh, well, this is just temporary. And you know, I'm gonna go back to my office at some point. It doesn't really matter. But even as I'm working with patients, for example, and I'm doing zoom visits, I'm very aware of my lighting because, um, not that I can care about necessarily looking fabulous, but I want them to be able to see my mouse so that they can, you know, read what I'm saying. You know, I want them to, like, I mean, the interaction actually is more driven by the camera, Right. So I, I wonder if people are doing more teaching or they're doing more conferences online, if this will become something that could bubble up. Yeah. I actually really love that point of view. And it's interesting hearing you say, you know, I want them to see me and see my face and see, you know, my mouth moving. That's when we're on set, that's really what we're striving for with the makeup. It's one. Yes. How do we make this character look beautiful? But also, you know, you have to adjust for the monitors and for the lighting. And part of being on set is babysitting a monitor and making sure that these characteristics of the character that you've created are being picked up and that, you know, things aren't really out of place. And it's interesting. I've never really thought of it that way of translating to zoom. And I kind of love that idea. Well, maybe you and I have a, have a, have a new business opportunity together that we can start talking about after, after we get off the podcast, Maybe. Yeah. I mean, I think what you're describing is really fascinating to me because, um, I, I know for having worked on, you know, a radio show podcast, um, televised work, that there there's a lot that goes into it. I mean, there's the clothes that you can wear, you know, the patterns, the colors, there's how your expressions come across, there's you and I were talking about zoom conversations and not talking over one another. And I think that many people, um, don't really quite understand kind of the level of thought that goes into creating something, particularly that's commercial. Let's just say, Yeah, a absolutely it's really, it's really nice to hear that, to be honest, because us, you know, creatives that have been working on set and have working on films and commercials and editorial, there is so much behind the scenes that people don't see, they see that, you know, forward facing image. And I think you're right. I think people are starting to get a taste of what all of that background is that has to go into it to make the show go on. So yeah, that's, that's a, it's a great point. And it makes me really happy to hear that that people are recognizing. Yeah, no, I, I think, and even just hearing what you're talking about with regard to the different types of looks that you want people to have, you know, a daytime look that's different than, you know, an evening glam, you know, a red carpet look and, and the idea you, you really have to be flexible and you have to have a skillset that enables you to say, okay, well I need their eyebrows to look this way during this time, their lips need to look this way during this time. I mean, that is an entire art form as you're describing it. Yeah, absolutely. And it's, that's one of the things that's amazing is, is working with whether it's an actor or a talent, and you, you have such an important part of helping them put on that, that character, even if they're, you know, a host of a show and going to play themselves, they're still playing a version of themselves and you're helping them put on that, that armor so that they can go out there and face all the cameras and face all the lights and face, all the people that have expectations of them. It's, it's a really special, um, career and, and job. And, you know, it was sad during the pandemic when, when it all kind of ended, but it also created a think, a lot of more opportunities. Well, it sounds like in your case, it created a really interesting opportunity that, that you got to come back to Maine and be where your husband's family was originally from, in dam, RADA. Yeah. And experience something that you hadn't experienced before, which is coastal Maine. Oh My God. And is there anything more magical than coastal Maine? I mean, it was really like coming back to this very healing land, this really beautiful place. And my mother-in-law's just an angel and let us stay with her. And while we were figuring out if we were gonna keep our apartment in New York and what we were gonna do, and it was, it was a, was a chaotic time. It was definitely a time of, of reflection and figuring a lot of things out. My husband was still building his business at the time. He had just opened this music consulting business and he was consulting with music, technology, startups, and now everything was over zoom. He wasn't in New York anymore. When he was in New York, he would just go to a studio, go to Sony's studio and talk to people. Now everything was over zoom. And he's sitting in his, you know, childhood bedroom, zooming with, you know, these people from Sony and trying to figure it out. And, you know, I was also in his childhood bedroom with this little desk trying to paint, trying to take, I, I took every class that I could at the art students league of New York, who, you know, thank God for technology when went virtual and they had zoom classes and I had this time on my hands and I, I figured I'm just gonna go for it. I've always loved art. It was always something that even when I was in New York, I would bring my sketch pad on it and I would draw and people would come over and say, what are you, what are you working on? What are you doing? Cuz there's a lot of downtime on set and people would take interest in it. And I loved hearing what they saw and what they thought when they looked at my work. And I took that, that little, that little voice that I had inside me and that, that little thing of like, I really enjoy this and I really like this and I wanna turn this into an opportunity, not just something where, you know, it's, it's, you know, we had to leave New York and we had to do all these things. Like I really like to look at things in terms of, but what's, what's the benefit of it. What's the silver lining. What's the thing that, what's the thing we can take away from this that helps build our character. Cause in tough situations. That's what it does. So yeah, I took, I at one point I was taking six art classes a week. I was helping my mother-in-law build an Airbnb on her property. Um, yeah, we were just trying to figure it out and living in, in D Mascato, which was a town of, I think the population's like 2000 people, I would walk through town with my little dog and my mother-in-law would be like, oh, so, and so saw you in town today and like, how do they, how do they know I'm here? She's like honey, there's, there's 10 people downtown. So it was very different than being in New York and being in this, this crowd. And you know, right before I left New York, I was working on some pretty large projects. Um, I had just done a job with Jane Fonda at the Plaza hotel. And then I had done, um, uh, birthday party for one of the Clintons. And the next week I was in my sister-in-law's bedroom waking up and saying, do I live here now in D MOCA? Um, but it also, like I said, it was very, it was very healing. There was, there was no eyes on me. There was no pressure on me. It was like, what do you wanna do at this time? And yeah, I, I tried to really focus on that and build something from it, which yeah, I think, I think it kind of turned out pretty well. So I'm, I'm really enjoying hearing you say this because this is something that intersects with something that I think a lot about, which is this idea of the growth mindset, where, where you're looking at something like, okay, so this doesn't feel great, but it really could be something that could lead to something else. Yeah. So for you, you use this, which it sounds like really was very traumatic and displacing and difficult, but you said, okay, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna move into the next thing and use this as a chance to grow in a way that maybe I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do before. That's. I mean, that's perfectly put that's exactly it. And I isn't that just what life is like, we go through these journeys. We don't, we don't, we have some say in it, you know, we get to direct some of it, but sometimes things happen that are out of our control. So, you know, it's your story, it's your journey? What are you gonna do with it? And again, I was really lucky. My husband's is so supportive. They were also my, my mother-in-law has my artwork all over her house. I tell her she's my biggest collector. She, you know, is such a champion of my work and my sister-in-law as well, which is the reason we moved to Portland. She's here. Um, you know, the, all of them are just they're wonderful, wonderful people. So even though it was traumatic and it was tough and it was hard. I had the perseverance to push through because I had amazing people around me and I don't take that lightly. I, I really, you know, they're my family and, and I love them. And my husband, how supportive he is, we built an art studio and in our apartment, we built this massive easel that we're really proud of because it moves in a way that we can take photos in, in the space. And I've had my friend, who's a photographer come and do a whole photo shoot in the space. And yeah, it's just, we created this kind of magical place out of it that with all that displacement and, you know, traumatic times, I wouldn't have had this with without all of that. So there's so much to be really grateful for, for sure. Show me this piece that, um, you brought with you Today. I would love to, so this is a piece that I just finished working on. Um, So describe this for the people who are listening. So this is a, an illustration. This is, um, a work on cotton paper, which if you're not an artist is kind of hard to describe, but it's very satisfying to work on cotton out in paper because it has this very velvety texture. But this is, I guess, the, the materials are water soluble, graphite, which is like a graphite that you paint with, um, and gush and watercolor. And the theme of this was shedding and renewal and Rebi. And I wanted a lot of my artwork mirrors, the cycles that we go through in life, uh, just like the cycles of nature. And I really wanted to showcase this, this female who is, you know, empowered and she's, she's shedding this, this skin and she's, she has all of these beautiful symbols around her. The butterfly is real or moth or, you know, it, it's, it's really about transformation and rebirth as is the snake. That's kind of wrapped around her almost, almost bring her eyes and securing her. Um, and then this very confident forward facing female. And a lot of my illustrations are, are kind of from, I guess I'll put, put it down are kind of from my point of view, as, as a woman, um, going through life and do just experiencing. And, uh, I use a lot of female portraiture to kind of convey that. Um, yeah, it was a really important piece for me because I I've struggled the past year, a lot to kind of find my artistic voice and style. And I think it's something that artists don't talk about a lot is, you know, we see this, this beautiful artwork like this beautiful work from Carlos, like working at the gallery. I see that these beautiful artists, this beautiful, beautiful artwork, but everyone has a journey to get there. And it's not pretty, you have to make a lot of bad art to make good art. So just experi experimenting with different materials and different things. And for every hundred pieces you make, you might make one good piece. And this piece was really special to me because I, I really listened to my voice and I really honed in on that style. Um, and it actually ties into this piece by because his, his work has spoken to me a lot. I met him at the, the opening of he, he had an opening at Portland art gallery before I worked there. Um, I would just pop in because it was just felt good to be in there. And I would always go visit and I had met him and, and we stayed in touch. Um, and he's, he's been very supportive of my art as well. He'll always, you know, kind of interact with me on Instagram and like my work and encourage me and have really great words to say. And, um, I was working in the gallery one day and I was getting a painting out for a client and I love Carlos's work, but I had never seen this painting. And I, I had, I had to move it to get the other painting out and I just stopped. And it was when I started working in this illustrative style and I looked at it and I was like, this, this is interesting. This is what I'm working on right now and what I'm doing right now. And it was almost the is nod to, yeah, keep going, keep going with that. Like, keep, keep finding your voice, keep honing that, and this is the second piece I've created in that, in that kind of illustrative style and it's blisful to work on and it feels amazing. And when you hone in on that as an artist, it feels really good. It feels so, yeah. Both pieces are, are important in different ways. And having talked to a lot of the Portland art gallery artists, um, there, there doesn't tend to be there don't there, there aren't as many people who are doing figurative work Yeah. As say more abstract there's. Um, and, and I love the range, but I think figurative work is, so it, it really creates a specificity. I think sometimes that, that people, um, are attracted to, or maybe not, oh, That's such a great point. That's such a great way to put it. And it's something that I think about a lot, because a lot of the classes that I took at the art students league portraiture is trying to capture someone's features and make it look like them. And that's not what I'm trying to do. And I don't think that's what Carlos is trying to do either. We're trying to give you a feeling of what this energy of this woman feels like, and that's very hard to do. And I think there's specific ways to do it. Like specifically for that piece. I chose to have it almost like a bust. Um, I was thinking a lot about sculptures and how, you know, old Greek sculptures and old Roman sculptures. We look at, um, they, they signify beauty. They signify Amini entity, but they're not the whole person. They're the bust. And there's, there's this feeling that you get from that. And it's such a good point to say that people look at portraiture and, you know, sometimes people don't want a specific person, you know, in their house staring at them. But if it's a feeling that they get from that person, it's very different, but you're so right. It's, it's something that I think people shy away from for a lot of reasons. Um, and it's one of the things I also love about our gallery is the range of work. And it's, I, when people come in and say, you have such a range here because we do, we have such, such a vast, uh, different subjects that people cover. And we do have people that do figurative work in such a, in such a beautiful stylized way where, you know, you do want her hanging in her house. You don't necessarily recognize her as someone that you specifically know, but with her hair tied up and, and the accents that he, he puts with the little penguin here with the cherry and the dragonfly, there's so much, there's so much more to it that it gives you such a feeling. You also brought some pieces that are kind of almost look like studies. I'm not sure if that's the way that they're intended. Yes, absolutely. Um, but they're very, um, they're very beautiful each in their own way. Yeah. Tell me about these. Thank you for saying that. I, so I do a lot of studies. Um, one of my mentors at the art students league was really big on us doing studies before we did a big piece. And before I work on a piece, um, I do, I do a lot of studies. I do a lot of figuring out my color palette, figuring out what little elements will look like. And sometimes the studies end up being sweet on their own. They end up being kind of like this, this little adornment. So these are two pieces that I actually have in my studio. I can't part with them yet. They should be for sale, but I just can't. I love having them in my studio. There's studies that I did that make me feel really happy. And I've added both of these elements into bigger, bigger pieces. Um, these are oil paintings, which is another medium. I, I really enjoy. This is a, um, Stella ma this moth is, uh, found from Maine to Florida. And I live in Maine and my, my family lives in Florida. So there's a really special connection there. And this piece is an eye study as a makeup artist. I really love eyes. That was kind of, my forte was always, uh, doing makeup on eyes. And I love different shapes of eyes. I love the spiritualism of eyes. Obviously people say it's the window of the soul, but there's so much more to it than that. I love painting eyes. I think it's one of the facial facial features that has so much character to it. Um, I also brought a piece of two hands. I love also painting hands. I love the symbolism and the gesture of hands. So yeah, that's, I love that you picked up that there, that there's studies. Well, if you ever decide to, to part with the, with the Florida main moth, it's quite beautiful. I don't think you'll have any difficulty with somebody wanting that for their home, because it, it is. It's very sweet and it's also, um, it's a very powerful piece of art, even though it's small. Yeah, yeah. It is. It's a little, I think this is four by four, so it's, it's tiny. I, I love these little decorative pieces cuz y