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PHOTO CUTLINE:

Scott Lyders, a Whitefish artist who makes various types of masks, creates special Halloween masks in his shop in Whitefish. Lyders currently has a show at Loula's Restaurant in Whitefish. Chris Jordan/Daily Inter Lake

Local artist's 'mood of the day' dictates unique decor on masks

Although the masks all are formed from the same mannequin's face, Lyders' pieces are distinctly different from each other.

By CAMDEN EASTERLING

The Daily Inter Lake

Slightly eerie but simultaneously intriguing faces perch on the walls of a Whitefish restaurant.

On one wall, eyes peer out from a log. Down a hallway, a face pops out from a larger-than-life piece of pie.

Just in time for Halloween, Whitefish artist Scott Lyders is displaying his masks at Loula's Cafe through the end of the month.

But the masks, which Lyders more often refers to simply as heads, aren't the kind of Halloween disguise found in a costume shop. They're handmade faces Lyders paints and decorates with any number of items, from dried chili peppers to birch bark and pine cones.

"They're pretty weird," the artist admits. "They're not for everybody."

But other people do find beauty and artistry in the masks Lyders crafts from his shop at his home.

He sells his works through the Bigfork gallery Art Fusion and already has sold one of the masks from the Loula's show.

Lyders, 41, has crafted masks for the last 15 years, but he started selling them only in the last year and a half after encouragement from friends.

"This whole thing has kind of evolved," he said. "I never really planned to do much with it."

But Lyders said he's thrilled to have interest in his work and is glad that what has long been a hobby is now a money-making venture.

The masks initially came out of an assignment for a 3-D design class Lyders took while pursuing graphic design in college.

On a student's tight budget, Lyders looked for inexpensive materials. His work at a restaurant meant easy access to cheap butcher's paper, which remains his material of choice.

Ever thrifty, Lyders still is working with a roll of paper he's had for 15 years. He tears off a wad of paper, crinkles it up to soften it, then soaks it in starch. Once the paper is wet, he molds it to a mannequin's face. He sets the head in a large loaf pan, another leftover from his restaurant days, and lets the paper dry.

Once it's dry, he fills the back of the mask with spray insulation foam to make it more durable.

Then he decorates the head, the motif being determined by "the mood of the day," he said. He applies paint with an airbrush because the technique highlights the texture of the paper.

For further decoration, Lyders relies on his garden or walks with his two dogs.

He gathers items such as driftwood, pine cones, birch bark and dried seed pods that he attaches to the masks, or alternately attaches the masks to. Some of his works, such as the piece at Loula's, feature masks tucked inside or on top of wood pieces.

"It's more fun to do that than go to the craft store and look at the doll's-head stuff," he said.

Lyders said he thinks some people buy his masks because the natural elements appeal to them.

Some of his works also include artificial decorations, such as the mask "Hot Beans" displayed at the cafe. Deviating from his usual practice of letting his mood guide his ornamentation, Lyders crafted that piece in honor of his favorite Whitefish coffee spot.

The mask features a rather devilish face covered in coffee beans and coffee grounds and accented with chili peppers. The head rests on a paper coffee cup and foam froths over the cup's top.

The money from the heads, which sell for $125-425, is nice, but mask making is more about stress relief than income, he said.

After making the initial heads for his college class, Lyders eventually gave up graphic design in favor of working in the restaurant business, where stress relief was a necessity.

He turned to making heads as a diversion.

"It was one way I could just think about something else and relax a little," he said.

He later became a business agent for a restaurant and hotel employees union in Seattle and still relied on the heads for relaxation. He and his wife, Jan, moved to Montana in 2001 to get away from the traffic and tribulations of city life.

Lyders now stays at home preparing the house for the bed and breakfast he and his wife plan to open by the end of October. The house is his main priority these days, so when the owners of Loula's asked him to display some masks, he had none to offer.

He quickly got to work, crafting about 20 pieces that now are on display at the cafe.

Although the masks all are formed from the same mannequin's face, Lyders' pieces are distinctly different from each other.

"You can change them enough to the point where you can't really tell they're the same face," he said.

He often pushes the paper around so the faces are distorted. He also has made several torsos through the same molding process.

His mask-making process, though, isn't right for casting a real person's face, he said. The features of the face don't come out as clearly as the mannequin's and the finished product doesn't look right.

Customer responses to Lyders' heads have been positive, although occasionally the word "ghoulish" comes up, a Loula's employee said.

Lyders tried to make the masks somewhat creepy in honor of Halloween, but the nature of the art itself is somewhat eerie, he said. Something about faces can just creep people out, he said.

The artist plans to make additional, wearable masks to sell at Loula's that will cost about $30. Those masks will be more elaborate but will be suitable for Halloween.

As for himself, Lyders said he will be content to make masks rather than wear one this Oct. 31.

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com.