Judith Rauchfuss: Freedom in Disguise

Imagine yourself at a Halloween party or a Mardi Gras ball or maybe the costume contest at a sci-fi convention. Suddenly you see someone wearing the most incredible mask. Maybe it’s black velvet with a purple plume sweeping down over one ear, or a blue and gold lace concoction with a dragon’s head perched on the brow.

You race through the crowd and manage to catch the cloaked reveler. “Who on earth made that fantastic mask?” you ask.

Chances are very good the answer will be Judith Rauchfuss of Leopard’s Leap, mask maker extraordinaire.

Crescent Blues: How did you start doing masks? Did you start in the fine arts or the fiber arts?

Rauchfuss: I started as a performer, actually. I created masks because I’m a dancer, and so I made masks for myself, for my own choreography, my own performances. I had been doing that for years.

Then I started doing a production called Osiris that was put on by a group of women here who started a dance studio called Dancers Supporting Dancers. That was when I started to realize that the masks were something that I really enjoyed making, not just for myself but for other people.

I did a whole production of the Egyptian gods and goddesses; all the headpieces and all the costumes. They came out just amazing, and so I got inspired to start creating them for other people. The next progression was that I actually juried and got into the local New Mexico art show here, which is every summer. That’s when I started selling to the public.

How long have you been making and selling masks to the public?

I started my company, Leopard’s Leap in 1986. I was doing masks before that, like I said. So I’ve been doing masks for about eight, nine years.

Do you consider them art or craft or costume or what?

That’s a good question. A lot of people buy my work simply to hang on the wall as art.

Does that bother you?

No, no! I appreciate all forms of whatever people call it.

It’s flattering that people would treat the masks as art, although, they wear so well. Several of your masks, for example, are perfectly designed to accommodate spectacles. I’ve never seen any other masks that let people wear their glasses.

Yes, I do create masks to wear. That’s where my heart is. One of the reasons why I started making them is that I love to see that transformation when people put them on.

Your customers become different people, depending on the mask?

It frees people up. Takes them to another plane, and I really like seeing that happen. Although I don’t care if people buy them and hang them on the wall either. Most people don’t wear them all the time anyway, so usually they’re hanging on the wall for part of the time.

Your masks are certainly not the sort of thing you put in the closet when you’re not wearing them; you’d want to be able to look at them all the time.

Yes, I encourage people to display them. I have hangers that I make for that purpose, that sort of thing. I want people to see the masks, of course — for the masks to be out there.

Where do you get the inspiration for particular masks? Do you look at other costumes?

I think my deepest inspiration comes from winged beings, mythical combinations of half-human, half-animal — that sort of fairy world. I want people to be on another plane when they wear it, not a human.

A hybrid of some sort.

Yes. But as far as making the actual pieces, my inspiration comes from a fabric swatch sometimes, or a shell sometimes. It comes from a variety of things. Sometimes it’s just a color. I just think of this really vivid purple, and I know I’m going to make this mask all in purple.

So it can be the image of the mask first, or an object that inspires the mask — depending on the mask?

Yes. It really comes in a variety of ways. And that’s one reason why I started doing masks. I felt there was a lot of depth to what I could do, where I could go with it and what I could do as far as themes and ideas. I’m still not tired of making them; I still really love going to my studio and creating them, and that’s very important as an artist. Because as soon as it becomes boring or tedious, you can’t do it any more.

I think the people who love them can tell whether the artist loves them as well.

Sure.

I could tell when you were trying on your masks for us at DragonCon that you loved wearing every one of them.

I do. I really love the process of selling them, too, because every person that comes along and buys one — it’s sort of like I made it for them. I know that sounds silly.

Do you see a person come up and say, “Ah, I have the mask for that person!” Or do you just experiment and see which one works for them?

Every once in a while, someone will come up and I’ll know. I’ll try to get them to try on a certain mask because I can see that it might be good for them or perfect for them. But usually I just let people just come to me.

They’ll find the one that’s right for them.

Yes. And that’s why I don’t really name my pieces either, because I feel like once they’ve gone from me, whoever buys it adds their personality to that mask. So they really need to name it. I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I name my pieces but I don’t.

Do you see a development in the kind of masks you’re making over the years? Are you growing in a particular direction, or how have they changed?

The masks have changed; they’ve made several big changes. When I first started making them I worked pretty much strictly with the buckram, and I wire-edged them. I did two-dimensional pieces curved in certain ways, and I covered them and quilted them and that sort of thing. Gradually over the years I’ve tried to take less materials that are “other-made,” and more materials that I actually create. I sculpt the creatures that I put on them. Now I try to not just find fabric [for a mask] but actually dye the silk and have a little more control over the fabrics and the colors that go into the mask.

To make them even more unique.

Yes. I want them to be uniquely mine, in a way that nobody else could make. Through the years it’s changed more toward that. But I still use and love feathers, that sort of thing.

The sculptures are a great addition.

I’ve got a whole new line coming out this year that I’m excited about. I’ll take those to Mardi Gras, which is my next show.

In New Orleans?

Yes.

That must be a wonderful show!

It is, it’s great fun. There’s a mask guild in New Orleans, and every year they put on a mask show that’s out in the French Market. Mask makers from all over the nation show their work there.

How do your fellow mask makers react?

Well, I think it’s been great for all of us. I can only really speak for myself, but for me it was wonderful, because I finally got to meet other mask makers. See, I had been doing this in Albuquerque for years.

And didn’ t know anyone else who did the same thing?

Right. So when I finally got to New Orleans and met some of the other people — it’s been wonderful! I’ve kept in touch with them over the years, and we talk to each other periodically and, when a show comes up and other mask makers are needed, we call each other. It’s really great for me to get to meet those other people who are my peers and who are doing what I’m doing.

And it’s not the sort of thing that it’s easy to share long distance; it’s a tactile art.

And it isn’t a big group of people, either; there aren’t many mask makers.

Is it an international group that meets at Mardi Gras or is it mostly mask makers in the U.S.?

It’s mostly national that I’ve met there. I would imagine there are other mask markets that must be huge — if you’re Italian, you would stay in Italy for Carnivale. Or Brazil.

Anywhere that has a Carnivale or a Mardi Gras.

Right.

Do you ever get involved in doing other parts of costumes to go with your masks or do you pretty much specialize?

I have closets full of costumes that I’ve made over the years.

It’s an addiction isn’t it?

Yes! And I actually have a video of my work that has costuming and the headpieces of all together; and it’s all choreographed. It’s a chance for me to get to move in my pieces instead of having a fixed photograph. But while I would love to do more of that again; it’s hard to find the time now that I’m [making masks] full-time. And I miss it, because I love creating a whole ensemble and then doing something in it — performing or just walking around or whatever. I always create a costume for Mardi Gras, which I will do again this year.

Have you ever done stage or screen productions?

Yes, I’ve done masks for a theater here in Albuquerque; I’ve worked for the municipal ballet; I’ve worked for the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Southwest. I’ve been in theater for many years. Theater is very, very difficult; it’s very stressful. I love theater — the magic of it — but it’s difficult and I’m not doing it as much. As I said, I originally started with the Osiris production, and I designed and created and did the whole thing.

But the masks are coming first these days.

Yes.

It would seem that making masks particularly for stage or opera, you wouldn’t be able to do some of the wonderful things that you do on your best masks, because they wouldn’t read from a stage, and they’d wear them out. Having done some back stage work, I remember the costumes always looked great from a distance. Close up they just had to be very sturdy.

Yes, and theater is very hard on them, particularly if the show runs several weeks or more.

What other kinds of one-of-a-kind projects do you do — do people come up and say, “I see a mask in my head; can you make it for me?”

Sure, I do that all the time. I really do travel the nation, I go from one end to the other, and I do get people who say, “I really want a mask to go with this outfit,” or “I’m going to this place and I need a mask.”

They tell you what color or a character?

Sure. I have done quite a few commissions. And I enjoy doing them as long as I can really get a solid idea of what they want. So far it’s been no trouble doing that.

And you’re mask making full time?

This is what I do for a living, right.

That’s so wonderful that there are enough people who appreciate it that you can make a living at it.

Yes; I started travelling nationally a couple of years ago. That’s what really helped move it along. Before that I was working in a theater here alongside that, but I decided to take it a step further and get out there with it, and I did, and it’s working. The travel is exhausting; I’d really like to know how I can do that better. But yes, this is how I make my living. It’s exciting.

What do you hope to do that you haven’t managed to do yet in the masks? Is there a vision that you haven’t yet had time or found the right materials or whatever?

I would like to create papier-mâché pieces so I can put more detail into eyelids and noses. And caricatures. I would love to do a line of caricatures. And also [masks] that I could mass produce a little easier, that I could make a series or a limited edition. That would be kind of fun I think, because I haven’t gotten into that, and I think it would be nice to be able to make more detail in the actual facial features.

Moving from the abstract to more realistic? That would be fun.

I’d like to continue to create the frontal sculptures that go on there, and I could go anywhere with that. I’d really like to see if I can get my masks to Italy for Carnivale. Places like that. It would be really great to be able to show in other countries. I’ve been looking out possible sponsorships that might be able to help with that, because it’s difficult getting your product overseas.

Especially when it’s something you really have to touch and play with to appreciate how wonderful it is.

Yes. So I’d like to see it go more international. I’d like to see possible theme oriented work. There’s lots of ways I could go with it; that’s the one great thing that’s nice about the masks.

You said you’d made a video, what do you do with that? Is it something you sell or lend?

Yes, I’ve lent it. I’ve sold it. I’ve shipped it out for people who want to see my complete works.

So it’s something you might use for people who are not going to run into you at a convention but might like to see what kind of masks you can do?

Yes. It’s a fun video, too. I think it gives a good insight into just movement in the masks.

Does it show anything about how you work?

No, it doesn’t.

It’s more the finished product.

Yes. It might be fun to do a video like that. I’ll tell you, that video was so much work! I didn’t know until we started it just how much.

I’ve never done a lot of video but I’ve done the occasional photo shoot and it’s just a question of doing it over and over and over again, even for a single shot. Especially when you have something you need to show of at its peak.

Yes. That was an eye opener. The editing alone! It was a good process. I learned a lot about how I would do it next time.

Like that old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore routine: “Have you learned from your mistakes?” “Yes, yes, I’ve learned from them and I can repeat them again exactly!” I’m usually that way with a project.

Oh, yes; it’ll be a while before I repeat that one.

Does it bother you when you sell something? Do you sometimes miss them after they’re gone?

There are some pieces that I have never had out of my house because I can’t part with them. And even the pieces that I do — there are some that I have to say goodbye to them when I sell them, because they’re really hard to let go of. But I have to pay the rent. And I’ve got to make more.

And the more you keep around, the less you have to pay the rent and you can’t buy cool stuff to make more — so I guess it works.

Yes it works out.

And you know, you might actually be at Mardi Gras and see one of your lost children walking toward you, looking fantastic. That would be kind of fun.

Well, within the science fiction circle I do. I see my masks out there all over the place now. People bring them to cons and they wear them and it’s great.

Donna Andrews