Angela Mestre CC’17
Q: Tell me about the process of becoming Ang the Avatar.
A: I recently watched the movie (shout out James Cameron) and I thought to myself, “This is crazy amazing, yet totally doable.” I had an event that was Halloween themed so it was definitely a now-or-never situation. But there was no way I could do it alone — I mean I needed some serious back-up. Immediately my friend Robert Holland came to mind. He’s a really talented artist, particularly in painting (obviously). Honestly, all the credit of that costume goes to him. He was so enthusiastic about getting together to plan the outfit and figure out the logistics of painting my whole body blue (how to get that brilliant turquoise color, which paints would last longest, etc.), for which I will be infinitely grateful.
We went absolutely bonkers at RiteAid and Ricky’s about a week before ~the transformation~. At Ricky’s we found a Native American headdress and tribal drum thing, which we ended up fashioning into the top by taking apart the drum and gorilla-gluing the feathers on. When it came time to transform me, Robert was confident and excited, so I was like, “Just go for it dude. I trust you.” He painted my face first, slopping this blue cream-cheesy substance onto my skin like it was nobody’s problem. He had acquired a really high quality image of Neytiri, the main female avatar, which he used to paint the most accurate facial design as possible. His attention to detail was what made the rendition so realistic. There was a moment when we had mostly finished my face/upper torso, when we both looked at me in the mirror and were like, “HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!! WOAH!!!!!!!”
So yeah, then we covered the rest of my body in whatever blue we could find. Robert crafted a couple of ears out of cardboard while I braided my hair into small braids. I stuck a few feathers in there and voila! Ang the Avatar. The entire transformation process took 3 hours.
Q: How did people outside react?
A: The reactions varied from not caring at all to completely tripping about it. A few people asked to take pictures of me (not even with me), which was still pretty chill; IQ finally got a taste of that Kardashian lifestyle. I think the best part was that the costume had a sustained shock-and-awe effect — the same people kept approaching me multiple times that night saying, “WTF, I cannot handle this”, and I was like, “I know. Me neither.” People were unbelievably nice and complimentary about my costume which made me feel nice n’ happy inside, so thank you @everyone! The general consensus was that I “killed it”. I’m not quite sure what “it” is, but I’m sorry, and RIP.
Q: How was your shower? Was it easy to wash the paint off?
A: Waking up and physically showering was a huge challenge (for other reasons apart from being half-blue, shout out Cannons). I was so shocked when I stuck my arm under the water and the paint just dissolved off. I barely had to scrub. My ears and armpits for some reason remained blue for a few days. I kept my hair in braids for a while because I was digging the grunge vibe. What an adventure.
Q: How do you like to dress when you’re not an avatar?
A:In my human form, I am admittedly a lot less interesting. Recently I’ve adopted a weird tomboy style which consists mostly of black and baggy clothes. Leather, boots, the works. I am truly a sucker for heels though, so you’ll rarely find me out at night flat-footed. When it comes to style/fashion, I am probably more of an observer than a performer — I enjoy appreciating (then occasionally emulating) people with really sick aesthetics. Keep doin’ your thang New Yorkers!!!
Costumes, of course, are a whole other story. Stay tuned for Halloween kids, iz gon be WILD.