Amy Spizzo

Photographer: Brian McConkey H/MUA: Me

Headshot for Rebecca Morgan Frank, author of three collections of poetry and recent recipient of The Orison Anthology Award in fiction.

One of my favorite poems from Ms. Frank is The Girlfriend Elegies, published in The New Yorker, October 15, 2018.
It is soul-crushingly beautiful...

I did not find the body.
It was wintertime where I was; women gathered

in bars. Their bodies like bare trees,
naked arms giving fruit to hands

in gestures. Ice was everywhere.
I could still feel the command of your hands

around a woman’s waist
when two-stepping—it was the only time

you wore joy. Your anger muscular
in your small tired body that always hurt.

I had seen your childhood once—there
was a hole in the wall of the living room.

It led somewhere.
Outside, the land was dry, grassless.

We had come to rescue the dog,
whom we found wrestling her chain in the dirt.

There was a lake somewhere nearby,
but no sign of it except boats behind cars.

Later, I learned your father was a sculptor,
your mother what we now call a hoarder.

The road home was long, more dryness.
Even the dog was wrapped in silence.

We slept in the back of the truck, our heads
at the opening, watching stars fall.

The future then a mirage: a place I’d save you.
I bought you things on my credit card.

We drank in the bars where everyone knew you and
the Southwest summer burned

through and then there were months
in which I tried to escape,

your drowning like a clasp around my throat.
I fled in the night. Years passed.

In the dry climates, there is less of an odor.
There was no sign of the dog

when they found you dead in your chair:
it had been days.

I thought of the woman in Croatia,
lying dead for decades in her apartment.

No one to find her. Find you.
There was a word for you back then,

mischievous in that one picture—
when we went to the mountains, your body

woke up from the mysterious illness—alert fawn,
a boy body freed

momentarily from a terrible girlhood.
Which is not to say you would ever have wanted

to be a man. Which is not to say
I could have saved you.

to headshot session with actress/model/producer, Renee Domenz. Humble, sweet, collaborative...doesn’t get much better than that. ☺️

Photographer: Brian McConkey
Makeup: Me
Hair: Super-fun Melissa Mull

Skin Prep: Dermologica
Foundation: Kryolan Professional Make-Up
Blush: KETT COSMETICS - Makeup For The Digital Age......
Eyeshadow: Stilazzi & Mehron Makeup
Mascara: Maybelline
Brows:
Lips Tom.Ford

Closing out 2019 with a shoutout to Karen Lynn for trusting me to work the annual CURE Epilepsy fundraiser last month. Doing makeup for CURE’s founder Susan Axelrod, Chairwoman Stacey Pigott, and the charmingly fierce Mom warrior, Kelly Cervantes, was an epic evening and truly an honor.

The only thing more inspiring than the entertainment (Miguel Cervantes from Hamilton & Nils Lofgren from Springsteen’s E Street ), was the courage Kelly Cervantes visibly summoned as I got her camera-ready to talk about losing their three-year-old daughter, Adelaide, to epilepsy in September. Kelly’s heartfelt plea to help find a cure brought plenty of tears, but it also brought out amazing compassion: 2 million dollars raised...bringing this tight-knit community of warriors one step closer to conquering this devastatingly brutal neurological condition.

By day she’s a fun-loving twenty-one-year-old sweetheart. By night she’s an ass-kicking MMA cage fighter who was totally game for me giving her a black eye.

Lovely lady fighter: Savanna Rae Savage
📸: Markus Giolas
💇🏻‍♀️&💄: Me
Retouching:

As a political ju**ie, I’m always thrilled to help strong female candidates who fight the good fight on education, affordable housing, and holding City Council accountable for high levels of lead in the water of 30% of 3000 Chicago homes tested.

Nothing but respect and admiration for for taking on “the machine” where our kids attend school: Chicago’s 33rd Ward. *tDone


📸:
💄& 💇🏻‍♀️: Me

If you have to work on your birthday, having 🎨 .vanriet & 🦄 help you knock it out of the park for 20 speakers streamed live all over the 🌎 & get asked backed before the gig is even over...well, it’s a 🌈 day to be an Aquarius ♒️. , ,

Had the pleasure and honor of getting this lovely woman (in her early 80s!) and her amazing 94-year-old WWII veteran husband camera-ready yesterday. Special thanks to and .makeup
What you don’t see is more rewarding. These are with like or or things that can’t be reduced to a hashtag. They are often the invisible among us and rarely hear the words, “You’re beautiful.” But when they do hear those words, something magical happens. They come alive, smile, and radiate a glow that no amount of illuminating highlighter can duplicate.

📸 capturing timeless beauty with . September 2016.
💄: Me
💇🏻‍♀️: Tess Smith

I have no idea what it feels like to be in amazing shape or peel off the post-baby weight gained after having my own kids, but this lovely mama does. Props to Shana for her inspiring story & showing others that it CAN be done...and it doesn’t have to suck one bit! 🙌🏼💪🏼🤹🏼‍♀️
📸:
H/MUA: Me

TBT. Lip gloss moment with aspiring model
📸 by mutual friend, Blair Holmes, owner of Blair Holmes Productions.