Artist Zecret Truex Expresses Herself Through Art

By: Madi Trepus
Staff Writer

 Zecret Truex works with oil paints and makeup to show her skills as an artist.

Truex’s first insight with art was in makeup. She has been doing makeup for over twenty years now. It was a way to express herself and she has made a small career out of it, now planning on going to cosmetology school to make a living out of it. Truex would look through magazines, trying to recreate the makeup looks and putting a lot of detail into the eye makeup.

Truex’s first art class was in her second quarter at Green River, Painting 101. Until that point she was mostly self-taught, other than a calligraphy class. Truex learned how to use oil paints in this class, having only played with acrylic paints before the class.

Truex is still improving, learning new techniques from every art class that she takes. In the classes, Truex has learned about attention to detail and how to see beauty in everything around her. Truex, while learning photography, has started paying more attention to her surroundings and what could be a good place for photos. She will rarely be seen with her phone out when she’s walking around, just admiring the beauty of what is around her.

Initially she was intimidated by the oil paints, but now they are what she prefers to use when painting. Truex likes being able paint, then going back to what she was painting the next day and having the paint still be wet.

Before the classes, she would sketch things, never taking it too seriously. One of the sketches she still has is a drawing of Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, keeping it to show how much she has improved.

When Truex was asked what her favorite piece she created was, she mentioned that her beautiful horse oil painting was a close second, but an acrylic painting of a girl was her favorite. She had spent around three months on her acrylic painting, working on it most nights until it was perfect. When Truex finds a project she loves, she commits to it, working even until three or four in the morning, until she either finds it perfect, or falls asleep.

Truex pulls inspiration from different places. A big inspiration for her paintings is Renaissance art and their color schemes. With makeup she tends to pull ideas from Drag Queens because of their bold makeup.

“It was amazing to me how amazing and bold they were able to do their makeup,” Truex said. She would love to be able to open her own art gallery, but she knows it would be a stretch to fully pursue this idea.

Truex loves the idea of making stage props and set pieces for theater, and makeup for performing arts. When asked if she is ever discouraged when painting, “Every time. The most discouraging part is proportions. It’s always 2 to 3 times that I mess up something. It’s like a few practice rounds as a warm up.”

Truex does not tend to follow art trends, other than makeup from Rupaul’s Drag Race. She is just trying to adjust her techniques. Truex’s main goal is to be able to have a gallery with her paintings in it, but she is still leaning more towards being able to do makeup and props for theater because makeup is what she has always been good at.

Her practice changed over time because at first she had no schedule, so now it has changed because she has a time schedule she needs to follow to get the paintings done.

If Truex could go back and talk to her old self, she would tell herself to go to school. When she was in high school she got a scholarship to Gene Juarez, but she talked herself out of it thinking she only liked doing hair and makeup for selfish reasons.

If she would have known how different college is from high school, she wouldn’t have taken a year off from school. “It would have been nice to keep going to school instead of waiting to go into the same cosmetology school as I would have when I was 18,” Truex said.

She has just signed up for a cosmetology school. With everyone being obsessed with makeup, hair, nails, and beauty she knows that this is where she will be most likely to succeed.

Her acrylic painting earned her a $1500 scholarship. Truex is planning on selling three of her horse oil paintings on her Instagram (@StylezOfZecret) to fund a Humanitarian trip.

Photo Cred: Zecret Truex