Jim Beinke

Grew up in the VERY rural Pond, Missouri. Graduated from Lafayette High School near St. Louis in 1981. As a student, Jim designed and built sets for both Lafayette and Pacific High Schools in the St. Louis area (he would skip school from Lafayette when there weren't any plays going on to work on Pacific High's plays). As a hobby, he made monster movie masks. Attended CalArts (California Institute of the Arts), in Valencia, CA, from 1981-1983, Studying Art Direction in their school of P.A.D.A.T. (Performing Arts Design and Technology). While at CalArts he learned that he could actually make a living doing his true love - make-up effects (the make-up effects boom of the 80s was just beginning), so set design sort of fell by the wayside (that's his 'normal job' to fall back on). During the early eighties he worked as a scenic artist on many stage productions, as well as working many jobs on art departments. He also performed a variety of jobs on many rock videos - including making the Quiet Riot Mask (He did the first Quiet Riot video while living in the design loft at CalArts) From the mid 80s to early 90s he made the specialty props for the Los Angeles Music Center Opera where he got to work with many illustrious designers like; Gunther Schneider-Simpson, Robert Israel, David Hockney, John & Elizabeth Bury (who won a Tony for their design of 'Amadeus'), Maurice Sendak (writer and illustrator of 'Where the Wild Things Are'), and Gerald Scarfe (English political cartoonist who did Pink Floyd'S 'The Wall' album cover). He currently lives in the mountains near Los Angeles (the closest thing to Missouri in the L.A. area).