The most remarkable life casting artist was Madame Tussaud. Born in 1760, she became famous for her London Wax Museum. She started taking casts of the freshly guillotined heads during the French Revolution. Some of the casts taken by Madame Tussaud were Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and many of her friends. She describes this event as "Shreeking with horror, but eager to retain a memento."

       

Sometimes life casts are used as reference for other works. The Lincoln mask taken in 1860 was used by the sculptor to model the face on the Lincoln Memorial. This cast was also used by the Disney studio for the creation of the Lincoln figure for the Hall of the Presidents.

       In Hollywood, Life Masks are made to design special make up effects for the movies. The make up artist will cast the stars face so that he can experiment with various makeup effects without putting the star through the ordeal. Also, if make up appliances are cast, they can be made from this model.

To make the mask the artist uses alginate, a special material that is intended to create a detailed impression while being more comfortable on the model than materials of the past. Prior to this development, plaster of Paris was used directly on the face; this was not flexible at all. It pulled out the subjects eye lashes and eyebrows and got very hot as it cured. This old method almost killed Thomas Jefferson.

       The artist will prepare the subjects by greasing the eye brows, pulling back and covering the hair and usually sticking straws up their nose so they can breathe. Then he layers the alginate on the stars face. The celebrity must sit very still as the goop hardens on his face. This material is then backed up by plaster gauze. When set up, the impression is pulled from the face. Plaster is then poured in to this mold. When it is taken out we have a positive exact image of the star's face in 3 dimensions. The original mold is destroyed in this process. Other casts are made from the positive using silicone molds that preserve all the detail.

       Enhancements can be made at this point. Hair can be sculpted on the mask.The hair style that is unique to the subject can be faithfully recreated. Eyebrows and facial hair can also be sculpted. When life masks are cast, the celebrity naturally has his eyes closed, so historically a life mask collection would look more like a morgue than a collection of lively vibrant people. The Sculptor can open the eyes and give back the original character and expression of the person.
 

Special effect makeup can be faithfully recreated to depict the stars in their most famous roles. Costumes can also be sculpted on the stars to make very impressive tributes to the celebrities.

       All masks are full scale one to one direct casts, some are a foot tall, they are very heavy and constructed to last. The masks are cast in Tuf-Cal designed by USG for casting Art Objects, it is fiber filled to resist fracturing durring shipping and Tuf-Cal has a polemer additive to resist chiping.
 

The following is a perspective by me Michael Baretta "I have known Erick for 15 years"

Erick Erickson has been an avid Movie fan all his life.
    At 9 years old Erick was accepted to the gifted youth program at the prestigious Chicago Art Institute. He continued classes for 8 years.
    Attending College at the Kansas City Art institute and School of Design he majored in Industrial Design and graduated at the top of his class on the Deans list in 1974.
    Erick started designing Cracker Jack toys and Cereal premiums. and went on to design Toys Manufactured by Mattel, Parker Brothers, Kenner, Milton Bradley, Ideal and many others at the Marvin Glass Studios in Chicago. As a result he has been granted 21 U.S. Patents.
    Erick then opened his own studio in the Heart of Chicago and Invented incredible electronic amusements manufactured by Bally, Williams Electronics and Stern Electronics. Erick then moved from Chicago to Florida and opened his own toy store.
    During the process of decorating the lobby of his private Movie Theater at his Home in Florida he purchased some life masks and was sorely disappointed that the Life Masks looked more like Death Masks. Erick decided to turn his disappointment into his next passion.

Using his talents as a sculptor Erick first restores the historic life masks. Undoing the damage done by time and recasting. Ears, hair and eybrows are added sculpturaly. The product is an acurate Historic mask with all of the original detail preserved. The historic mask is an amazing display that captures the spirit of the person cast. .    Then Erick takes it up a notch. He takes the mask he has just restored and does a version full of life. Erick began the process of creating sculptures of the celebrity's depicting them at their most famous moments, he sculpts the celebrity's eyes open, adds expression, make up , hair styles and costumes.     Since these sculptures are built up on an actual casting of the actors face they are truly life like you can see and feel every pore and wrinkle. I can personally tell you that it is very erie to look up and see one these characters looking at you, for an instant you'd swear that they were actually alive.     Erick is now casting these works of art in limited quantities the masks that are developed as the final characters are signed and numbered.

Erick's art work is in the collections of many museums some of which are International Peace Museum Belgium  Amarillo Museum of Art  Curators Collection Amarillo Texas Tarleton Oaks, Gone with the Wind Collection Barnesville Georgia Westmore Institute of Cosmetic Arts Burbank California Regency Fine Art Gallery Norcross Georgia National Armed Services &  Law Enforcement Memorial Museum Dunedin Florida Strong Museum   Top Children's Museum Rochester New York

Erick's Theater Lobby in his Home. .

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