Makeup Mistress - The Gospel According to Alex Box.

The visionary work of the artist Alex Box.
I started wearing makeup to school when I was about 12 years old. It coincided with my waking-up to find a curvy-as-hell body where there had been a little girl the night before.
One of my earliest memories is of sitting enthralled, watching Mum apply her makeup in the morning. It was all things gorgeous, feminine and lovely to me.
Then at about 13, I cut-out a special on the perfect 'smokey eye' from the MODE magazine that Dad always bought for Mum and me. The model was a sphinx - just a perfect 60's siren, all bed-head hair and come-hither smudges around her eyes. I've been smudging ever since.
At school I was ridiculed for my powdered base, liner and lashes... consantly sent to the toilets to 'Wash that off your face!'. I would carefully soap off my shadowed lids and re-apply my mascarra in a more 'natural' way.
I fucking hated it. What a fucking joke; regardless of the well-publicised devastation that my family was facing at the time, I would still be called out for being so presumptuous as to experiment with makeup. There was no mercy for me and my makeup, but all else passed un-noticed. NOT drugs or men, just makeup.
Parents of the girls in my class would complain about the amount of makeup I wore to school, apparently oblivious that their own precious daughter's were the nastiest school bullies, pushing pot and sleeping with anything that wasnt nailed down.
But everyone pays the piper. The very teachers that picked on me for my powder compact, perfectly arched brows and highlighted lids, have since fallen into terrible disrepute. And the mothers who hastened to slang me for my lovely lashes - well, apart from a few infamous debacles - they've never been heard of again.
Makeup should ALWAYS be recognised for the beautiful possibilities and escape that it provides. Its all about playing - the most innocent of games; everyday, a different 'me'. With my makeup bag, I can travel round the world and be any woman I want to be.
And I so enjoy washing it all off and being fresh-faced and totally 'Me' again... because every artist has to start painting again with a fresh canvas.