F |
E |
A |
T |
U |
R |
E |
D |
: |
|
|
J |
O |
Y |
|
F |
E |
N |
N |
E |
L |
L |
Imperfection is where the Perfection Lies
Makeup Artist Joy Fennell is Creating More Opportunities with Other Black Creators During COVID-19 .
ENSPIRE CONTRIBUTED : OCTAVIA JOHNSON INTERVIEW BY : ESE OFURHIE
Creator . Beauty Guru . High Fashion . Makeup Goddess . Artist . These are just a few words to describe the accomplished Joy Fennell . Joy is a make-up artist , who is based in Harlem , New York . She has worked on campaigns for clients such as Target , Dior , and Chanel . After much of the world shut down during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic , Joy pivoted her makeup business by creating her “ All Black Everything Summit ”. The summit was a 3-day virtual conference that highlighted and celebrated Black Global creative Pros .
Tell our audience a little bit about yourself and who you are .
Okay , so my name is Joy and I am the owner of Joy and Beauty . I am a makeup artist based in New York City . But I ’ m originally from the Washington DC area , PG County . I ’ ve been dealing with it for about 20 years and during the COVID situation , during the pandemic in quarantine , I decided to start doing some Instagram Live videos where I interviewed a host of different people from different parts of different industries . During that time , though , I wondered to myself , how was the pandemic gonna affect black people . And I was like , you know , a lot of times we get a lot of things affect us in a disproportionate way . And out of that . I was like , I ’ ve got the bright idea to host a three-day summit . And when I hosted a three-day summit , it was mainly geared towards black creatives in the photo and fashion industry makeup industry , so I have makeup artists , photographers , hairstylists , nail artists , creative directors , you know ? Like I want us to , to feel empowered and to keep going .
What was the biggest takeaway that you took from that summit ?
Um , honestly for myself the biggest takeaway is that I did that . I literally did it in two to three weeks . And , you know , I ’ m actually really happy to say that because I felt like what I tried to strive to bring was a certain level of , you know , like professionalism . But I ’ m not into that gatekeeping , I ’ m not into that mentality , I want people to have , you know , I want people to know they can go out there and take this information that they got and realize it in their business , you know ? That was my main thing that I wanted to do and that ’ s why I was like you know what , I felt like I accomplished that . I feel like the messages that I got outside of that , we ’ re very much speaking to the fact that I ’ m pretty confident it happens .
How many other people took some stuff away from that three-day summit that they probably would not have because they were at home , they were dealing with some stress , but because you chose to create that platform you allow those people to maybe come out there show ?
When I think about it , a lot of people don ’ t realize that creative people tend to have a hard time with communication sometimes . We channel our communication into our art , and whatever form that art shows up in . That ’ s how we communicate , you know , we might not be able to vocally express how we feel . But , we paint an amazing painting , we put together some film that expresses who we are , or we do some makeup on someone , and you know , it comes out in that way . That was why I was like , you know , for me , being at home , not being able to touch anybody ’ s face , you know , or create anything , visually , I was like , what am I going to do . [ The Summit ] was more to help me with this pandemic because I was like , “ I don ’ t know what to do , like , I ’ m gonna sit around .” That was part of the reason why I even started doing Instagram Lives , which , anybody that knows me knows that I am not a camera person . So , for me to even do that I was , myself , at the fact that I kept that going . I just learned so much about myself .
As a black woman in the makeup world for over 20 years How have you used your platform to change in the industry ?
So , when I first started , I know for me , I didn ’ t see a lot of people who looked like me in this industry . I mean , of course , Pat McGrath was around , you know , but I also really wanted to go into fashion , into the fashion editorial side of makeup . On that side , you really didn ’ t see anybody that looked like me , like I would be the only one , the only black person that would be on set , a lot of times , you know . I had to actively create my portfolio to make sure that people knew that I could do people that don ’ t look like me makeup , you know ? My portfolio definitely had to look like , I could do everybody on set , you know ? So that was one of