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LMC: Talk more about Jeff. What had he taught you and why do you feel he is a mask scientist?

JS:  I was very young and immature when I went to work for Jeff, and I think he got annoyed by my whiny homesickness after awhile. Of course now, we are good friends, and I’m even thinking of going back out to Indiana someday to shoot the breeze with him and sculpt, just for old times sake. But while I was there I learned about rub-outs (spraying a mask with a color and then rubbing it off, leaving paint in the details and cracks); duplicate molding; thinning epoxy with acetone to get more longevity out of a batch; spraying vinegar in a mold to insure a more uniform thickness; But most of all, I learned to raise the quality of my masks to a different level, a level where I felt they really could be called art. The amazing thing about Jeff is that he has experienced just about everything that can go wrong with a latex mask, and subsequently knows how to circumvent any problem. I remember calling him up (recently!) because I was having trouble with latex setting up in an Ultracal mold. Almost the first words out of his mouth after I told him the problem  were, “ Try cleaning the mold out with lacquer thinner.” I did and the next masks came out perfectly.

LMC: Talk about Ed.

JS:  I wasn’t aware of exactly who it was that ran Distortions Unlimited until well into my teens, but I had been VERY intrigued by an ad that ran in a 1978 issue of Fangoria.  I think it was the issue that featured the robot from “Saturn 9” on it’s cover. Anyway, I owned a few of their great early pieces by the time I was 14 or so, and around that time I ran across an article on independent mask-makers in a magazine called ‘Amazing Cinema’, which is now defunct. This had brief interviews with several guys that would become true idols of mine; David Ayres, Joe Reader, Jeff Keim---and a guy named Ed Edmunds. There was a photo of him standing in front of a wall of his mask creations. I looked at that photo with a magnifying glass. I was absolutely obsessed with Distortions masks. Many years later, I’m at the huge Halloween Trade Show in Chicago, and Ed comes up to my table and says: “Your masks are fantastic. I want you to work for me.” You could have knocked me over with a rubber mask. I was out-of-my-mind excited. About a week after the trade show, Ed flew out to Philadelphia to meet my parents and try to sweet-talk me into moving to Colorado! Here I was being courted by my idol!! Not long after, Ed flew me out to Colorado to check out his facility. I can remember clearly that the area of the state we were in (Kersey) smelled very strongly of cow dung—but it was not unpleasant. It was as if you were on an enormous farm all the time, which I suppose we were. Well, working for Ed had always been a fantasy of mine, so I committed to a period of three or four months, during which time I sculpted a lot of stuff, but surprisingly few masks. I did a prototype Freddy Kreuger mask (which was truly terrible), and a weird baby monster based on a great Steve Johnson character never used in ‘Poltergeist II’. What Ed had me doing the most of, though, were maquettes for a series of----well, hand-puppet things, I guess…I didn’t fully understand the concept he was shooting for, and I still don’t, but they were a lot of fun to sculpt. I also came up with a few  novelty concepts, like something called the ‘Terror Teddy’, a teddy bear with huge teeth and claws. Ed had all kinds of crazy ideas for things, all of which I sculpted while there; Pet Condoms, Baby on Board, even concepts for full-sized costumes. I remember one afternoon, Ed was showing some businessmen around the studio, and they came up to my room (I was actually living at the shop), and as he came through the door, he said: “And this is our chief sculptor…” I had cause to think of just how badly I had wanted to work for him, and it was an immensely satisfying feeling to hear him refer to me as the chief  sculptor!

Colorado was amazingly beautiful to live in, and I often think of the time I spent there with great fondness. Well, despite the awesome money I was making and the fact that I was working for an idol of mine, I started to get awful homesick (I was a real baby), and by the time my 3-month commitment was up, I was very ready to return home. But Ed wasn’t willing to let me go that easily. In fact, he got kinda pissed when I made it clear that I wanted to leave. He tried to cajole, persuade, and finally got sort of mean about it. It occurs to me now that he was a businessman first, and a maskmaker second. He wanted to hold onto his commodity, plain and simple---and while that’s flattering in retrospect, I wish things could have ended in a less acrimonious fashion between us. I will always admire greatly his contribution to the mask world, and the influence of his early work on me is immeasurable. But he is a formidable enemy to make, and I hope he doesn’t still hold it against me that I left. Either way, it is an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world, and I will always look back on that time as one of the most exciting in my career.

LMC: Any masks in your early career you are especially proud of?

JS: There are  2 in particular that were good sellers as well as personal favorites; One called ‘Hybrid’, a creepy insect monster with some obvious Predator influence, and another called ‘Gothic Demon’ which was an animalistic demon with glowing green eyes.

LMC: What about now… what’s your all time favorite creation?

JS: My son, Cody. Would you like to see a picture? Hey—hey, wanna see a picture?! Just kiddin’. I don’t have kids, but I’ve heard that as a response to this question so often I couldn’t resist. It is very hard to narrow down what an all--time favorite is, but it usually is my latest thing, whatever that may be at the time

LMC: What about maquettes?  Any you particularly like?                         

JS: I did a Sculpey maquette of my interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” creature that turned out nicely

LMC: Any masks out there you really like that someone else created?  What about any particular mask artist (current day or past)?

JS:  I have been hugely influenced by the early masks of Distortions Unlimited. As far as I’m concerned, Ed Edmunds created some of the best masks of all time in the first 5 years or so of their existence. There have been so many imitators of their style since then that, looking back, the stuff in their early catalogs probably wouldn’t seem that original. But believe me, back then it was. Creeton, Krem, The Nightmare Series, Human Error, Gargon Master, Heavy Metal, Neutron Alien… these were all classics. Jeff Keim, of course (of Death Studio), has created tons of fantastic stuff, and unlike Distortions, has maintained a superb level of quality since day one. Entity, Bite, Seer, Jonathan, Mr. Big, Post Mortem, Megas…all fantastic; there are just too many to name from his line. Like Ed, Jeff’s eye for good design is flawless. There was a fellow that I met there who sculpted for Jeff who’s stuff was mind-blowing. His name was John Smith, and he brought a mask up from his home in Edinburgh (a few hours South of LaPorte) one night that he had been working on. Jeff and I were very anxious to see it. Well, John removes the trash bag from this thing, and our response was immediate, jaw-dropping awe. It was this wacky big sky blue demon with down-turned horns, big tusks, and tiny green eyes—it looked like a Rob Bottin character! It was just incredible—very organically sculpted. John is just the nicest guy, too; to look at him, you would never guess that he creates this wild stuff. Another excellent maskmaker was a guy named Joe Reader who went on to work at Stan Winston’s. He did a lot of kick-ass aliens and even robot masks. He did one called Yomad Warrior that I thought was particularly cool.  Also, a great insect monster mask called Bugg. His quality was extremely high. I wish he still made masks.

LMC: How has your career grown since your earlier mask making years?

JS: Well, I suppose I’ve achieved a fair amount---but I feel that I have grown personally more than anything since coming to Los Angeles. I have tried very hard to resist bitterness, largely unsuccessfully…but I am finding that I understand much more about  why this industry works the way it does, and why some are successful and others are not. Of course, there are always a few baffling cases, such as Carrot Top and Pauly Shore.

LMC: How have you progressed as a sculptor from the early days?  How good were you starting out?       

JS:  It’s a bit difficult to answer that question, because any artist’s progression is so gradual as to be imperceptible, and it’s especially difficult to have perspective when you are the artist asked this. I suppose the most obvious change in my work is a greater realism and subtlety. How good I was starting out is an even trickier question to answer. At first, I think I probably displayed a certain flair which was promising, but not remarkable. Only after many years of hard work and dedication do I think my work began to take on a distinctly professional edge

LMC: What is your typical bread and butter work at your studio?  Teaching, sculpting, molding, etc? 

JS: The majority of the money I make is commissions for sculpting from various effects houses, collectors, even video game companies. What the school provides is simply enough money to support the rent and the utilities on my studio.

LMC: Any particular commissions you get that you just love to do?  What about types of commissions you would sooner be done with right away?

JS:  The commissions I hate the most, by far, are toys. They require a degree of perfection and accuracy that is maddening to someone who is creative. When I get the opportunity to design something for a commission, that is where I get true enjoyment. Gosh, how I wish I could find someone who loved quality monsters, had the money to have them made---and offered full creative freedom. A pipe dream no doubt…

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