Guests

Michael Defeo, the sculptor behind characters from Despicable Me 2, The Lorax, Minions, Ice Age 1 through 4, Robots, Horton Hears a Who, is joining CONstruct.Michael is a sculptor whose specialty lies in translating 2-D character designs into fully-fledged 3-D models, either by clay or digitally in Zbrush. He hand-built the modeling and sculpting studios at Blue Sky Studios and served as the head of each for 15 years. While with his pals at Blue Sky, Michael brought countless characters to life. Michael’s versatility and unique use of traditional and digital mediums give life to a wide array of characters, from teddy bears to creatures for the film ALIEN RESURRECTION.

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Bill and Brittany Doran run Punished Props, a boutique small business that produces high quality replica props for clients all over the world. They have extensively documented his builds and a core focus of his business is sharing knowledge gleaned from trial and error, as shown by the Foam Armorsmithing book series. Bill is a frequent guest and panel speaker teaching the basics of prop and costuming making.

Kelly Harris is a Special Effects makeup artist working in the film and art department industry. Her credits include the SyFy channels Face Off, the Roots mini series, Aftermath; featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and work on animatronics for attractions worldwide. 

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Jarman Props is an Atlantan-based prop prop and costuming shop exploring popular sci-fi and fantasy properties. From his base of operations, he sculpts, molds, and casts his way through his favorite sci-fi and fantasy characters.

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Matthew H. James
Matthew H. James is a Brooklyn based artist born and raised in Hawai'i. He has worked for 12 years in New York as an artist and has shown around the world including permanent installations in the lobby of the Onyx building in Chelsea NY and the Solair Resort in Manila.  He recently finished a 21 foot tall out door commissioned painting for the Salt development in Hawaii.  His journey with art began with special effects.  The discovery of Dick Smith’s and Tom Savini’s books at the age of nine propelled him into a word of material and technique that informs his methodologies to this day.  He has worked on numerous low budget films in New York most recently for the film “Frontier” Which he created and performed in a 9 foot foam monster suit.   

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Craig Lindberg
Two-time Emmy nominee Craig Lindberg owns and operates General Mayhem Makeup Studio and has worked on a wide variety of film and television movies since breaking into the makeup industry, including The Walking Dead, Royal Pains, Boardwalk Empire, Magnificent 7, Kong: Skull Island, and Saturday Night Live.  As an instructor, he created a makeup program for Christine Valmy and serves as a guest instructor at the Makeup Designory, Make Up For Ever, and the Local 798 Hair and Makeup Union. Lindberg was one of the 30 for 30 artists selected for the Make Up For Ever palette. 

Eli Livingston has worked professionally as a freelance sculptor for the Make-up FX, Commercial, and Fine arts industry for over 15 years. His work has been used for Marvel, Diamond Select Toys, Saturday Night Live, and H.R. Giger.

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Michael Maddi started in the industry at a young age, and by 18, he was assisting make-up artist Ed French on C.H.U.D. Early credits include The Blob, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Once Around and Last Exit to Brooklyn. By his early 30s Maddi headed the make-up department at Saturday Night Live. He now creates 3-D animation along with make-up. His make-up effects company, Illusioneering, creates a range of hyper-real effects and make-ups, from designs to custom props and fully articulated puppets. His latest work can be seen on the upcoming movie Glass, and the 2017 film Wonderstruck.

Jordu Schell
Jordu Schell has been in the film and television industry since 1987. His talent as a designer and sculptor is world renowned, and his credits include Avatar (2009), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), 300 (2006), Hellboy (2004), Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem (2007), Men in Black (1997), Batman Returns (1992), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Alien: Resurrection (1997), The X-Files Movie (1998), Predator II (1990), Galaxy Quest (1999), and Babylon 5-The Series, on which he designed an Emmy award-winning creature make-up and the first fully digital creature for a television series.
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Joshua Turi of Designs to Deceive is a three-time Emmy-award winner, known for his work on Saturday Night Live, Orange Is the New Black, The Amazing Spiderman II, Men in Black III, and the Marvel Netflix series, inclusive of Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones.

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Shelley Wapniak
Shelley is a graduate of SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry with a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture in 2007.  Shelley is a published Illustrator.   Her first book Eye See You Africa published in 2012 was Authored and Photographed by Dr. Jay Walshon.    Shelley has been body painting for 4 years and in that time her work has appeared in International Protests, Piermont Flywheel Gallery, The Art of Fashion at Neiman Marcos,  Fox Sports, ESPN , NBC, Channel 12 news and  Shelley had a personal appearance on the Today Show with Al Roker