AUBRIANA ZURILGEN IS FEATURED ON THE LAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN’S WEB SITE AND ON A FUND RAISING MAILER. SHE IS WORKING ON THE MODEL FOR HER SENIOR PROJECT. B y definition, a mask usually hides a person’s identity. In the case of a 2005 Mariposa County High School graduate and senior at Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD), the mask defines her personality.

Aubriana Zurilgen, the daughter of John and Cindy Zurilgen of Mariposa, is a senior at LCAD and is currently working on her senior project as she prepares to graduate. Her’s is no ordinary senior project, however.

Zurilgen is creating an industrystandard costume, from concept to fruition. She hopes to work in the movie industry as an effects artist or concept artist or in the game industry. The project is a portfolio piece that is meant to show off the students’ best work and passion for the field they want to enter.

AUBRIANA ZURILGEN (RIGHT) AND PAUL HOWELL RECENTLY WON A $2,500 GRAND PRIZE FOR THE COSTUMES THEY ARE WEARING. “For myself, costuming is my love and my passion,” Zurilgen’s Web site says.

While at LCAD, Zurilgen decided to take her love of costuming to the next level and after several successful costuming and mask making projects, the “Mad Masker” was born.

oining with Chimerical Creations, she has several upcoming projects to showcase her creative skills, including a

ull-body creature costume.

She has honed her skills on a wide variety of projects from creaure

concepts for “Mythbinder,” stop-motion animation and fullbody costuming and mask making. All of this is leadng

to her goal of becoming a cinema and theatrical costumer, prop maker and creaure

artist.

Most recently, Zurilgen received first place and a grand prize cash award of $2,500 in The Muckenthaler Cultural Center’s annual Moonight

GEN ESTIMATES THIS PROJECT WILL COST BETWEEN $2,000 AND $3,000 TO COMPLETE. Masquerade Gala on Oct. 25. Zurilgen and her friend, Paul Howell, created the costume duo “Shaard the Shattered One and the Shaman” and were dubbed the “Wolf Couple” by judges and fans at the event.

They were chosen from a field of 300 contestants. A panel that included fashion and design instructors and industry professionals

udged the contest.

Zurilgen told stunewslaguna.com,

I’ve always been interested in mysticism and all types of religions. I

ove learning about them and was recently inspired by Native American beliefs and aesthetic.”

She made the skull mask for the Shaman first, then created the costume around it. Howell’s costume is a character in a book series he created. The production took over a month and combined Howell’s animatronics talent with

THIS IS THE MODEL ZURILGEN MADE IN ADVANCE OF STARTING HER SENIOR PROJECT. THE COSTUME SHE DESIGNS WILL BE A LIFE-SIZE VERSION OF THIS. Zurilgen’s creativity.

Zurilgen plans to use the prize money to fund her senior project in order to create a portfolio to apply for movie industry jobs. She will graduate from LCAD with a bachelor’s degree in illustration and animation.

Her work can be seen at madmasker.com.