Exploring Expression w/ Gabriela

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The world has always been an uncertain place, but COVID-19 has amplified this reality. Thankfully, throughout history, conditions like these have inspired some of the most beautiful art known to (wo)man. No matter the mode, art has always called attention to the realities experienced by individuals and groups. Sometimes it’s a direct reflection and other times it’s a skewed alteration. Gabriela Leal is an art student and makeup artist whose inspiration stems just as much from her reality as it does from her imagination. Drawing since the age of 10, Gabriela credits her roots and social media for the way that she incorporates bold colors into her looks. It’s been five years since Gabriela started exploring her artistry through makeup. Her laser-focus, and sheer talent, have garnered support from loved ones and close to 1,000 followers. If she’s not transforming her own face, she’s transforming that of her loved ones’ although all of that has taken a backseat to her education. Now, with quarantine in full effect, the Columbia College student’s day-to-day life has been impacted significantly.

Leal was used to working two to three jobs in the food industry, to pay for school, but eateries are still working towards reopening. Like many universities, Columbia College has shifted to online classes exclusively causing her to shift her focus and ramp up her discipline. Yet, and still, Leal continues to find ways to celebrate her identity, channel her creativity and champion the vastly talented, beauty community while inspiring others to do the same. “I’ve made it a goal of mine to try and explore as many mediums and forms of art as I could. I discovered that makeup is a wonderful tool for exploring my creativity and expressing it outwardly”, she said.

What inspires your looks?

I draw my inspiration from a variety of sources. Social media has been a huge influence and I am grateful for the incredible community of artists—of any medium—that share their work on apps such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Tumblr, etc. I follow many artists whose work provides inspiration, ideas, and tips to help the growing community. Along with the copious amounts of fellow artists, I try to translate my actual art into my makeup. It has taken a number of years, but I am finally settling into a sort of style for myself and I have found that one of the biggest inspirations for me is color. I love the inclusion of bright and vibrant colors, colors that draw attention and shout at the audience. Simply looking day to day at the colors that surround me lead to a flow of thoughts that I am able to draw ideas from.

What elements from your culture(s) and/or environment impact your makeup looks?

I am primarily Mexican and German. I am not connected much at all to German culture, though I can definitely appreciate it from afar. Mexican culture, to me, is one of the most beautiful I have seen. Although much of my family speaks Spanish and is at least relatively in touch with this culture, my parents chose to not teach my sister or I Spanish. I feel as though this has led to a sort of disconnect with this culture that I so adore. In high school I took Spanish, but it wasn’t as successful as I hoped it would be. I try to continue practicing the language, but there will always be that experience lost with my many Spanish-speaking family members, and disconnect from the culture I experienced during my childhood.

Because of this, it would be wrong of me to say I draw any overwhelming amount of inspiration from my culture- I hope to change this in the future, though there are some aspects I do try to incorporate. As I said, color is one of the most important aspects in my work. Both my mother and her mother —my nana from Chihuahua, Mexico— are in love with sugar skulls from the Día de los Muertos celebration that takes place every year. The colors that people don during this celebration must be seen in person to fully appreciate them, but I would like to further explore these colors as inspiration for work in the future.

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Describe your experience of building a brand online as a makeup artist.

It wasn’t until about a year after I started exploring makeup seriously that I decided I wanted to share my work online. I made a separate account for my makeup work, and my good friend Jonas—who makes beautiful music, you can find him @jonasmsic on Instagram—suggested the username BriefcaseMakeup. Since then, it’s stuck and I’m glad to have that as a memory of how it started, as he was greatly influential in my introduction to makeup, constantly encouraging me.

I am eternally grateful to my great friends who continue to repost my work on their stories, granting me a considerable amount of exposure. Within the past few months, my account has been able to grow substantially and one of the reasons for that in particular is another great friend of mine, Eden. Eden sent my work to a Twitter/Instagram page dedicated to sharing “beautiful work and beautiful people,” @cyberglitter. Since the time that she did this, a couple months ago, the incredibly kind owner of this account has continued to repost my work. This generosity has allowed me and many other artists to discover each other on social media. I highly recommend following this wonderful page, and those like it, that are devoted to sharing the talent of the artistic community on social media.

Along with the countless number of supporters I have been lucky to have, I found that joining TikTok was able to gain me a considerable following in a relatively short amount of time as well. The app makes it seem almost easy to reach many new audiences because of the way that it is programmed and how it shows videos on many users “For You Page.” Using this app has also allowed me to explore a new addition to my work: videos. Though I’m not yet very good at it, it’s very enjoyable to work with and I hope to make more as I get better.

What social justice causes/topics of discussion are you passionate about? Do you incorporate any of them into your makeup?

There are a number of social justice topics I have been passionate about thus far in my life, but I have yet to incorporate them in my work. As my following grows, I plan to delve into some of these topics, trying to reach as many people as I can and possibly work as a voice on important topics that are seen as taboo or don’t receive the attention they deserve.

To list a few of these topics, I would like to speak out against the injustice faced on a day to day basis by Black Americans from police brutality (and support the Black Lives Matter Movement as a whole), the oppression faced by Palestinians from the Israeli government, the constant mistreatment of people on the border between the U.S. and Mexico perpetuated by ICE, and advocating for the equal treatment and rights of transgender peoples.

How have you been impacted by COVID-19? And what role has makeup played in your life since "sheltering-in-place" restrictions were mandated?:

Quarantine, in response to COVID-19, has resulted in quite a few changes for me, as it has for pretty much everyone. I often work two to three jobs at a time in order to pay for my school, but since these jobs were pretty much all in the food industry, I have been unable to return back to work. Because of both this and the fact that my school has made the transition to online teaching, I practically don’t leave the house. Recently, I have been especially busy finishing up schoolwork for my freshman year of college, but since we will likely be in quarantine for a while, I’ll have plenty of time after that is completed to work freely on my art. Trying to finish all my work has limited the amount of time I can dedicate to makeup thus far, but after school is over, I am excited to get back to work, share plenty of new looks and build connections after this is over.