We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amber Mari. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amber below.

Amber, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

If i’m completely honest, the most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on, has been myself. Not anyone else’s idea. Not anyone else’s dream. My inner growth and own personal creative ideas truthfully takes the cake above all.

While it feels amazing to help other people’s visions come to life through Special Effects Makeup, at the end of the day, that is their precious creative idea. Which is AWESOME that i’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing artists and help make the impossible, possible for them. This has allowed me to push the boundaries of what I even thought was possible practically, artistically, creatively and even on an inner personal level. I’m forever grateful to my client’s trust in me and to be able to create with them.

However, this may sound a little harsh but bare with me. The artist doesn’t choose to create for others for the entirety of their journey. Eventually the artist within you will have an impulse that is to create for the pure sake of creating from your soul. If this is ignored, the artist can become overworked, stressed, unfulfilled, jaded, and have deep creative wounds that take lots of time to heal.

This isn’t to say that collaboration is bad. If anything it’s the complete opposite. Collaboration with other artists is the best way to grow. It teaches you more than you’d ever do alone much faster. Although we can lose sight of creative our alignment when things like survival, money, business, busyness, and much more can distract us from our greater good.

This is why after 10 years of being a professional artist in the film industry, and a lifelong artist from the day I was born, it has become my mission to help teach people “growth as the whole artist” so they can stay in creative alignment with their artistic goals while building a business and selling their art, without selling out. Not everyone has the opportunity to be blessed with a mentor like I was early in my career.

When my mentor asked me several years into my makeup career what I REALLY wanted to do with my life, I was completely taken back. After some deep honest thought, I was reminded of my love of music and secret dream of being a popstar. After this realization, I started taking small steps toward this frivolous dream of mine feeling silly but incredibly inspired. While I still LOVE being a makeup artist and this was one of my dreams as well, there was this inner artist child that had been ignored for years.

As I now have unearthed this buried passion of mine, it has taught me so much about personal growth, that being a hired contractor hadn’t. I have dug deep into healing through music while combining my efforts of FX and filmmaking into music videos and song concepts.

To be transparent, I have zero regrets about my makeup career. This IS a dream I fulfilled. Then I realized that it was completely fine to want more. It was totally safe to pursue other creative outlets and not just makeup FX. I’ve also learned so much about business, making deals, working with people, damage control, leadership, strategy, and even some legal aspects. However, my most meaningful personal projects like music, and now building a movement to help creatives on both ends of the spectrum has helped me lean into divine creativity, emotions, and healing through creating vulnerable art from the depths of my soul.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Amber Mari. I’m a musician, special makeup effects artist and business coach for creatives.

From as early as I can remember I was an artist. My mom said that I would use both hands while coloring confusing her if I was left or right handed. I vividly remember dancing around our small house singing to Brittney Spears and Aaron Carter at about 4 years old then watch Jurassic Park on repeat before we were eventually evicted because we couldn’t afford it.

Art continued to be my safe place. I would draw, play my keyboard, bang on pots and pans, and make clothes for my barbies after giving them wild haircuts and redoing their makeup. It sounds chaotic and that’s because there was chaos all around me. Playing with several forms of art allowed me to get through my trauma to bring me a glimmer of happiness and safety.

It wasn’t until I was in 7th grade, I joined band to start to learn how to play music. Unfortunately my band teacher would make fun of my best friend and I so I eventually switched to art class. This is where I got a small introduction to sculpting and color theory foreshadowing the revelation of a new passion for makeup and special effects.

In high school I joined the theater club to hang out with my friends where I was placed into the makeup department. I soon discovered that I had a natural talent for applying makeup, working with actors and managing a team. On my first show I was honored department head along with another artist friend. We went on to run several shows together and compete in thespian festivals. Being a makeup artist started to become my identity and was a rapidly growing passion that I did not see coming.

After high school I attended Makeup Designory in Burbank,CA to expand my skills into more realistic forms of makeup application. Although the school was a good introduction, I soon found myself to feel lost and not good enough as I set out on my professional journey. It seemed impossible to get jobs, even if they didn’t pay. The early days were tough to say the least.

This tough period of my journey eventually led me to some not so smart choices such as recreational drug use and even worse, starting to give up on my dream. As I was working two jobs to make enough money to move out of my grandparents and closer to LA, I started to feel burnt out, distracted, and veering off the path that was meant for me.
I was arrested 2 days after my 19th birthday for possession of a controlled substance. This moment flipped my world completely upside down. I spent an extremely long night in jail praying for one more chance to fulfill my dream of becoming a pro makeup artist.

Little did I know, that rock bottom moment would turn into the best thing that ever happened to me..

Word got out around to various family members and one relative that I barely knew had one small connection that would eventually change my entire life. Mind you, my family was not “dialed in” and far from wealthy. I eventually met a special makeup effects artist named Jim Ojala who took me under his wing. I began to intern for him while I secretly attended AA classes to get my charges dropped.

My career was finally beginning and I was going to do whatever I took to succeed.

Now, 10 years later I’m the owner of my own company Amber Mari Creations and have made multiple 6 figures over all years in business working on various commercials, films, TV, music videos etc. I’ve worked on projects with clients such as Hulu, Billie Eilish, Slipknot, Little Caesar’s and many more.

One common attribute that my business provides for our clients is that we help make the impossible, possible for them. Oftentimes deadlines are tight and our goal is to make the best product possible with the resources that we have. We always put quality first as well as trying new innovative techniques to make our creations stand out against most. Our specialty is in creating freaky prosthetic makeups, realistic food costumes, wild creature suits, and unique animatronic puppets.

After 10 successful years in business, I have now added mentorship and coaching to my list of services where I teach “growth as the WHOLE artist”. Being a professional artist is far from easy, but oh so worth it. My mission is to help artists and creatives stay in creative alignment when building a business and selling their art, without selling out. That way they get to fulfill their wildest ideas, and make an income from it if they wish to. My goal is to remind artists that they can treat their business as a work of art itself so they can thrive in their unique zones of genius. Once artists let go of the “starving artist” mindset, their creative potential gets to finally thrive and even inspire others to take a chance on their creativity.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’m most fulfilled when I’m in the flow of creating. That’s when time becomes non-existant and all of your worries get to drip away for a while. I treat every project almost like a puzzle. Puzzles take time and are challenging but there’s something so satisfying when you “figure it out” or crack the code. I especially feel this when i’m making music or sculpting.

Then when you finally finish a project it feels like you’ve been through a beautiful journey. You become another person and meet a new version of yourself on the other side.

Making art has been proven over and over again that it boosts dopamine and serotonin in the brain. Therefore it has healing properties and is essential to our well being and humans. So the whole purpose of it is built to be rewarding, but it takes work and practice to get there.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

First, I believe that everyone has the ability to be creative. Some have just uncovered it more than others. If you look all around, you will see creativity everywhere in everything. I think most people confuse creativity with being artistic.

Creativity can actually look “non-sexy” on the surface. Where something artistic can look “sexy” but if it’s directly copied from something else there may be little creativity involved.

My biggest piece of advice is that even if you don’t feel creative, you still have permission to make art, even if it’s bad. Good artists make bad art all the time. It’s how they got good in the first place. You just need to give yourself a chance and allow yourself to play with a medium that you find interesting.

Society has bashed the arts for many decades and it’s not people’s fault for not understanding art and creativity. However, when you get to step into a state of play, even for just a moment, I’ve seen magical things happen in an instant. The creative act is spiritual and healing for our mind and body. It’s where I feel like I truly have gotten to know myself on a core level which is just so beautiful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beacons.ai/amberlikeenergy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ambermfx_?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551703905464
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/mtsIzeULeJA?si=MWsVOoTTzOTViTJk
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0R1sNrlQp2Ds8tEsHoabpd?si=otMf0tvERrKRcXJThCKWdQ

Image Credits

Jim Ojala