We were lucky to catch up with Alisa Sickora Kleckner recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alisa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?
I have been professionally gifted by having a number of generous mentors and amazing collaborators but perhaps the kindest thing anyone has done for me was to stop a stranger in the street wearing a leather mask.
It was very early in my career designing for the haunted attraction industry and after taking a belt making class at a local Tandy leather store, I came to the logical conclusion (that is, logical to creative types) to go all in and engineer my first vegetable tanned leather mask. Belt to mask? Well, of course! Now, given my decade of mask making experience, albeit in other media, and my acumen for draping garments, I experimented. I played. I dabbled in other sculptural elements. I teased out ideas until I came up with something I found both haunting and beautiful. The result was a muzzle style mask with a viewing window revealing a real dental appliance of crooked teeth being gagged by a brass rod. That’s what stopped the long bearded twins in their tracks. Dinner could wait, they needed to know more.
My friend in the mask charged up the stairs of the restaurant where we were just being seated, began talking so fast, gesticulating wildly, competing with the chaos of a very loud establishment that I had no idea what he was going on about. He was wearing a muzzle after all, so verbally articulating what had just transpired was not nearly as effective as grabbing my hand and dragging me out the the building. I met the twins and they met me with an offer: build a dozen more designs and we will showcase your work on the trade show floor free of charge. The industry will eat this up. We’ve never seen anything like it. Here’s our card. Come see us tomorrow at our booth.
And with that faith from a stranger, a pair of identical strangers, Scared of my Shadow was launched. By taking action in the moment, satisfying that curiosity rather than letting it pass, the course of my creative trajectory was nourished in ways I can’t even begin to explain.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
History: I didn’t grow up loving horror like most haunted attraction industry professionals. I was a costume, mask and prop designer/fabricator but for theatre primarily. I was a college professor who took a sculptural approach to her work. Thematically, I worked in many genres of narrative storytelling but creepy stuff, to be quite honest, was not my jam. I was downright heebie-jeebied by all things killer: mega sharks, eggplant-headed aliens, zombified hordes, demon dollies but most of all, those elusive masked maniacs. So how did I end up in the haunted attraction industry? Someone needed a decaying horse prop for a Sleepy Hollow themed scene and I jumped at the chance. I’ve always enjoyed rendering anatomy so why not, right? Let me tell you why not, I had to walk through all kinds of scary scenes to get to the work room. It was a dark, winding walk that reeked of acrid latex and years of neglect. I stumbled through with my hands up as blinders, minding my periphery and focused on getting through as quickly as possible to my well lit space. But one day, I parted my fingers and started to look. I haven’t stopped looking since. Now I see all its beauty in the distressed textures and glossy gore. I revel in the story it implies and the psychological games it plays. I love the fear it has helped me to conquer and the fear it challenges me to emulate. This seasoned theatre professional traded in her Chekhov and Ibsen for King and Craven. I have never felt so much creative freedom as I do now. I design masks, costumes, props, storylines, characters, and concepts that frolic in the dark alleys of our collective fears. I am not just an artist, I’m a world builder.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Societally speaking, Americans tend to undervalue the contributions and expertise of artists. We aren’t culturally taught how to understand the creative process. There is so much that goes into the work. It’s called work because it is labor, one that requires skill and grit and dedication. It demands vulnerability every time the work is shared. It is facing down the rejection with grace. It is epiphany and mania. It is all at the high cost of creating something visionary, inspired, inspiring. The world is forever changed by its creatives. Undervaluing them is the death knell for cultural evolution.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Being of the pre-internet generation, I had no idea how vast the creative field was. You see, I was on the AP trajectory in my teen years. I dabbled in art as a hobby and acting as an extracurricular. Academically speaking, there was little room for creative endeavors and definitely no space for world building. There were rules and guidelines and best practices to be followed on the road to being a “successful” adult. To escape small town life, art was a luxury reserved for the weirdos, outcasts or the übber rich. My creative journey was stalled on Rt 15.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.scared-of-my-shadow.com
- Instagram: scaredofmyshadowart
- Facebook: Scared of my Shadow
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisa-sickora-kleckner
- Other: https://www.alisa-sickora-kleckner.com I also teach through https://www.morbidanatomy.org/classes
Image Credits
Alisa Sickora Kleckner with the Rabbit Rabbit Mask : model Payne Fraser Nurse: model Amanda Sharp bBlowing Vapor: model Kyle Binkly Raven: model Violet Sleigh