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Michael
Maron - Bringing Out that Inner Beauty |
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Michael
Maron’s has enjoyed an illustrious career as a makeup artist, critically
acclaimed photographer and beauty consultant. He has authored books such as
Child Inside Me and
Makeover Magic, which took a look at
corrective cosmetics and cosmetic surgery and his book Michael Maron’s
Instant Makeover Magic was a New York
Times best seller. Maron has been sought out by some of the beauty industry’s
top models, as well as some of the entertainment world’s biggest stars and yet
he also delights in being of service to clients whose names are only known to
their families and neighbors. Michael Maron has been a radio and television
personality and worked on the production side of television as well. He was
thrust firmly into the spotlight when an entire hour of Oprah’s television show
was dedicated to Maron doing a makeover of Oprah in front of the cameras. His
work with charities and with burn victims has earned him a special place in the
hearts of those who have worked with him, in the hearts of his friends and with
those who have been the recipients of his generosity. Riveting Riffs Magazine
was honored when Michael Maron accepted our invitation to be interviewed by this
publication. Michael Maron was born in New York City and as a child
moved with his family of four to Los Angeles. “(One of) my mother’s many sisters lived in Southern
California and she said to my mother, ‘It’s time you took your family and moved
here.’ We did and she (the sister) sort of orchestrated everything about where
to live and so we could be near her. It may be one of the best things that my
parents ever did,” he says. Maron talks about his early creative endeavors, “When a
kid starts drawing instinctively or maybe even in school you just sort of know
that you are doing something that you love. I didn’t necessarily know that I did
it better than others. Maybe after getting some reinforcement from the teachers
you figure out that you are doing something that you are supposed to do and that
maybe is excelling what some other children are doing. I never really compared,
because I always thought everyone saw what I saw through my own eyes.
When I would paint a portrait or later on when I would do photography, I
would always hope that people would see the shadows that I would see until I
learned that not everybody sees that and you are seeing it through an artist’s
eyes. It was a gradual thing when I started learning and it was instinctive to
me. My mother always encouraged me and because she said that
my artwork was so good, it gave me the confidence to keep doing it. I felt as if
I was an old soul and I was told that I was and it showed up in my artwork. My
artwork was sophisticated enough that even at the age of twelve adults wanted to
hang (my art) on their walls. My first piece, an oil painting was sold when I
was twelve years old.” Michael Maron acknowledges the many layers of his career
and the eclectic nature of it, as well as a career that he explored at the
university level and that may come as a surprise to even some of his friends. “I
have wanted to do so many things. I have always worn many hats and I have always
wanted to do many things and I actually have done many things. That is sort of
the story of my life. When I was growing up, I think more than anything I was a
painter and then I became a photographer. I wanted to be an architect, so I
studied architecture at Arizona State University. That was mainly my first
thing, but it wasn’t until I studied it that I found I wasn’t that good.
I knew I had to change my path.
I was flying home on an airplane for a break and my parents were picking
me up at the airport and Barbra Streisand was singing “On A Clear Day (You Can
See Forever).” The sky was so clear and I had an epiphany. I thought when I get
off of this plane I am going to tell my parents that I don’t want to come back
(to Arizona State University) and I want to work in show business in some way.
That is exactly what happened. They said how are you?
I said I am fine, except I am not going to study architecture anymore.
I remember my mother saying, what changed your mind? I said, Barbra
Streisand. We laughed and then I
explained. That’s exactly what happened. Then I enrolled at UCLA and I majored
in film and television. I pursued
the whole directing aspect of being behind the camera. I always loved being
behind the camera even though I was working in front of the camera a little bit.
Because I am no spring chicken anymore, there are groups
of people from my past who only know me from school, as being in the theater
department and then because I was a photographer for so long LA people only knew
me as a photographer. When I got
into doing makeup, I got into doing my female clients’ makeup at the same time.
I would do the makeup before I would do the photo session.
It was the dramatic differences that I was creating, because I would
paint faces instinctively too. It is no different than an oil painting. I
decided it was so shocking to see the transformation and the difference that
dark and light can create and how makeup can adjust the features of the face and
bring it into better balance or make a woman look younger or just enhance. I
figured I needed to write a book and that I needed to show this to everybody, so
consequently I wrote my first major book
Makeover Magic. It turned out to be the best-selling book of the ‘80s and
then it kept me so busy as a makeup artist that I no longer did photography.
Consequently, there is this large group of the public who only know me as a
makeup artist. You ask one person
and they will say oh, Michael Maron the photographer? You ask another person and
they may say, oh you mean the makeup artist? Then dating further back another
person will say, Michael Maron from UCLA? He was in the theatre department.
Because of the theatre department I got my director’s guild card and I
became an associate director and I worked in television for many years. If you
ask one person they will see me one way and if you ask another person they will
see me another way and those who know me really well or have known me for a long
time know that I have dabbled in so many different careers. It seems like I have been very fortunate in all of the
careers that I have pursued and not only have they given me so much enjoyment,
but I suppose I have been successful in them (he
only admitted this modestly after being prompted about his success).
Eventually, the Whilhelmina Models began to notice
Michael Maron’s work. “My greatest passion turned out (that I liked) being my
own boss and doing my own creations with photography and makeup together. I
think that was the longest lasting aspect of my career when I was younger. I was
so passionate about it and it was Whilhelmina herself who took notice of my
photographs, because of the combination of the makeup and I suppose my lighting
and my technique. She trusted some
of her celebrity clients or models in my hands and she started to send me some
of her bigger people. She was more
or less the catalyst for me starting to work with more notable names.
At the same time I was a part of their commercial and theatrical division
as talent. I was represented by Whilhelmina at the exact same time. It was
nothing. Occasionally, they would send me out on jobs in front of the camera,
but it wasn’t my number one passion. My number one passion still was being
behind the camera doing the makeup and taking the pictures. I started to get celebrity clients and because of that
many of them agreed to be in my first book.
It was virtually the first book that showed scores of celebrities with
and without makeup on. That is when my association working with stars really
began. I go so far back, I can’t remember who was the first one
(that he did a makeover of on TV), but Phyllis Diller (in the photo to the right
with Michael Maron) certainly was the biggest star who was in association to me.
In other words she was the catalyst for promoting me, my first book and my work,
because she was so out there and brutally honest about the fact that she had
plastic surgery and that she would show her bare face. No one had ever seen it
prior to my first book. She showed her bare face without a stitch of makeup on
and without her wigs on,” says Maron. Michael Maron attributes his association with Phyllis
Diller and her appearance in his book for generating a lot of positive media
attention for him and also numerous invitations to appear on television shows,
sometimes accompanied by Phyllis Diller. We thought, who better to ask than Michael Maron if the
way that the entertainment community and the general public view women and
beauty has changed during his lifetime and has that changed the way that he
approaches his craft? “It has changed dramatically, mainly because of social
media and the paparazzi. Because of the
media it seems that every woman wants to emulate the stars and we have
sexualized women even more than ever. Fashion and beauty have become sexier if
you will and it is more daring and more provocative. I think that it has gotten
out of hand,” then alluding to a new book he is preparing to write he says, “It
may be part of my next book, about dispelling the beauty myth, of why makeup can
be a terrific thing and why it can also be a very negative thing. Where it got negative is the way that advertising and
the media have progressed in such ways that the retouching in magazines has made
women feel they are not enough. It makes so many women and especially young
girls feel that they have to live up to these unrealistic expectations of what
beauty is and of what true beauty is and it is all nonsense. Not even the
biggest fashion models and celebrities look that good all of the time. Because
of the advertising and the media there is a misperceived notion that women
aren’t good enough unless they are super thin, very sexy, extremely beautiful
and flawless. In my opinion of what
beauty is, those things don’t mean anything,” he says. Does beauty end as we get older? You probably would not
get far taking that position when talking to Michael Maron. He says, “I am getting older and I love every minute of
it. I have learned how to say no and I have learned how to walk away, even from
something wonderful, such as being an on-air personality at QVC (where
he developed two very successful product lines), an experience which will
always remain dear to my heart. It was not because being an on air spokesperson
and product developer wasn’t fabulous, but (there are times) that you do have to
move on and often times we get so carried away with our passion and what we love
that we don’t always take time to enjoy the simple things in life. It is an
important thing to do whether you meditate or you just calm down.
You have to stop sometimes to just regroup or to simply enjoy life. In
that case that meant not being on airplanes as much and not being on the go so
much. It is a part of getting older that makes you become wiser in that area. Getting older is an opportunity to learn how to embrace
the simpler things in life. It is also an opportunity to embrace how you look as
you become older, because you do indeed change and it is also beautiful to
appear older. It may not be as viable in our society where ageism is rampant,
but the individual needs to learn to let that go and learn to celebrate every
year that you age, because you actually improve. I believe as I age I become
wiser and more spiritual and more connected to the friends and family that I
love. I think that is the beauty of
aging. Michael Maron talked about a couple of other pathways
his career has taken him down. “One of my books was about plastic surgery.
Coincidentally, due to the research I was doing, I was elected to be the makeup
consultant to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. It was not because I was
enamored by plastic surgery or that it was something I wanted to do, but because
it became such a hot topic in regards to appearance that I wanted to learn
everything that I could about cosmetic surgery and that’s why I researched it,”
he says. We would be remiss if we did not mention Michael Maron’s
work with burn victims. “I am really passionate about corrective makeup. The
first corrective makeup that I did was on a burn survivor. It was gratifying to
see the exuberance in the face of that particular client, because they finally
felt more normal, which gave them so much pleasure and that gave me a desire to
do more of that. I started to work
more and more with burn survivors with our country’s renowned burn centers and
plastic surgeons,” says Maron. Reflecting upon his career Michael Maron says, “I have
slowed down and I am enjoying doing less. I don’t think you can equate a
particular kind of work with enjoying your life more. I think it is how you are
enjoying your life when you are not working that is probably as important as
when you are working (he laughs). I
don’t know if that makes sense, but becoming more spiritually attuned and
comfortable with who you are when you are alone is as important as when you are
working.”
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