How Maya Fitzpatrick incorporates creativity in her day-to-day
BY: ELIZABETH CLEARY
Managing Editor
In STLCC student Maya Fitzpatrick’s mind, art is fluid. Whether she’s blending eyeshadow, layering oil paint or framing a shot through her camera lens, she moves between mediums with confidence and passion, building both her skill and a growing online following along the way.
Stuck inside during the pandemic, Fitzpatrick discovered her love for makeup art – a passion that has only grown since. Inspired in 2020 by content creator Avani and her clown makeup looks, Fitzpatrick ordered an oil palette off of Amazon, determined to recreate the look and experiment in other ways.
“At first it was really, really bad,” Fitzpatrick said before laughing, “but very quickly, I felt like I got very good.”
Fitzpatrick currently runs two TikTok accounts where she posts her makeup looks. Totaling 8,000 followers across both accounts, Fitzpatrick has had several of her makeup videos reach millions of views.
“Originally I was like, ‘oh, finally,’ because I’ve been posting for years,” Fitzpatrick said of her videos getting attention. “Then it’s very anti-climactic. I feel like you’ll want it, and you’ll strive for it so much, and then it’s like ‘okay.’”
Going viral, she admits, can feel strange.
“I do think I am some people’s niche internet celebrity,” Fitzpatrick said. “I was in a Chick-fil-A one time and the cashier was like, ‘hey, I’ve seen your makeup videos.’ That’s the only time where it’s like, wow, any of this has paid off. Most of the time a video will do good and get 200k likes. I’m like, ‘okay cool,’ but that just feels like a number.”
Posting her face online invites scrutiny as easily as praise, but Fitzpatrick doesn’t shy away from it.
“I’m a very, very confident person. Like, you can say whatever you want to me, it’s not really going to affect me,” Fitzpatrick said. “I do think for some people, posting is not for them. Especially since I’m posting just my face, people are going to comment about my makeup or the way I lip-sync – things like that.”
When reflecting on her favorite looks over the years, Fitzpatrick has plenty to choose from.
“My first tan-line makeup look, I didn’t care for much, but then I redid it, and I really liked the pictures that came from that one. I really like the ocean one where I did some jellyfish and I had a sun coming from here,” Fitzpatrick said, gesturing to her forehead. “I like that one. Recently, I did one with a bunch of circles on my face, like colorful glitter circles.”
Makeup, however, is only one medium she works in. Since fifth grade, Fitzpatrick has painted, first with acrylics before falling in love with oils.
“I really liked how oil is so forgiving. It never dries, so you can just keep messing with it. When I tried it on canvas for the first time, I was like ‘this is so great,’” Fitzpatrick said.
Her favorite time to paint is during the summertime, where she will spend an entire day painting outdoors.
“I really like my Western one,” Fitzpatrick said, thinking back to her favorite pieces. “That one is really cool. Also my skull painting – I did that one freshman year. I feel like that one’s held up well over time.”
Her creativity extends behind the camera as well. Last fall, she was spontaneously asked to photograph her cousin’s wedding in Ohio. Walking around with a Canon camera and her mom’s iPhone, Fitzpatrick captured the event.
“I just started taking pictures. I was in the aisle when she was walking down and I was like boom, boom, boom,” Fitzpatrick said as she mimicked taking pictures.
After first experimenting with photography on her mom’s Lumix, Fitzpatrick now uses an underwater Canon for many of her shoots. Over the summer, she brought it to a creek for an underwater session.
“I went to a creek watering pool, which was very clean. I took a bunch of pictures, and that was the most fun photoshoot I’ve ever had because it was just playing underwater with a camera,” Fitzpatrick said.
Despite her growing online presence, Fitzpatrick’s ultimate career goal is to become a third grade teacher, where she hopes to bring her love for art into the classroom.
“There is a lot of art that elementary school teachers do,” Fitzpatrick said. “I worked in preschool for two years, and I’d always be the one to write on the board and do little drawings.”
While she isn’t set on becoming a big influencer, Fitzpatrick knows that she wants creativity to remain central in her life. Whether it’s on social media or in a classroom, she plans to keep creating and sharing her art.
