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

Saya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Looking back at my work, all my projects have been very meaningful to me. It’s hard to pick one because the “tagger clown” I did on my homegirl C0zy is dear to me representing the grafiti artists and taggers I was friends with growing up and as an adult. I grew up in harbor area, so I also saw amazing graffiti everywhere and that heavily influenced that project as all. But, id say my most favorite was the cemetery project photographed by my dear friend Kenihanas. Growing up my dad would take me on walks at the Forest Lawn cemetery, probably a little weird but I was going through a lot at the time and the cemetery was a place we could chat about it where no one would listen, mind their own business, and it was just peaceful and quiet. I visited the cemeteries a lot throughout my life, not only for walks, but to see dear people of mine stay there forever. Most of my memories at the cemetery are pretty painful, but their were also important parts of my life that developed me into who I am today. Other than that, I was also an emo/scene/goth kid growing up and have a goth step sister who heavily influenced my style, aesthetic, and that project. Overall, that project was an ode to my childhood and my love for dark “things”.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Anyone who knows me for a long time knows I always had a love for makeup. Since I was 18, I would do a lot of clown makeup on myself, and my love for clown culture ran deep since I was a child. It wasn’t until my homegirl Strangledstarr (Kim) wanted me to do a clown look on her, it got a lot of recognition and still to this day one of my favorite clown looks i’ve done. From there, it just got the ball rolling for me. And I thank her for giving me that opportunity because I went in not thinking much, just doing what I love and having fun and left with the door open to this world of doing makeup as a career. I would say Im known for my “glam clown makeup”. My influence for that style of clown is from my moms makeup style in the 90s/2000s growing up, especially her pencil thin eyebrows. However, this past 6-8 months Ive really proven to not only my audience, but myself that I am versatile with makeup and found my passion for editorial makeup. I love studying the face and using the face as a canvas for my ideas.
I absolutely love what I do, I love seeing the models and other peoples reaction when they see the makeup done, I love talking and getting to know my clients, I love the friends i’ve made through this, it’s always an adventure. I can’t wait to see what future adventures Ill be on with this path.

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

As a makeup artist, I am lucky I have the opportunity to work with all kinds of people. Not all, but for many Ive worked with, my makeup chair has become a place where a lot of deep conversations have taken place. It’s extremely rewarding to gain not only the trust of touching someone’s face, but also their trust in letting me listen and/or chat with them about their life. As a social butterfly, I love talking to people and getting to hear different points of view and their ideas. Through this, i’ve made some amazing friends that I know will be with me for life and Im extremely thankful for that.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal is to represent me, where I come from, and the people around me. To be as authentic as possible and give back to and community, uplift the community, and just put biPOC people on every single creative map possible.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @sayitapayasita

Image Credits
@noface.06 @monicazulemaa @shotem.la @fedellalizeth @el2raw @strangledstarr @jocelynnlr @c0zystt @ninaa.ely @gabby.mn @jen4rmtheblock @sassanna