Robert Barron used to work for the CIA, where he helped transform people beyond recognition. Now he makes prosthetics that do exactly the opposite:
His gifted hands move with remarkable precision. Each brush stroke is calculated. Each piece he sculpts is meticulously crafted, and sometimes re-crafted, to reach perfection.
Some of the tools he uses seem wildly out of place: two pasta rollers, orange peels, and dozens of large-gauge syringes filled with fluids of various colours. That’s what it takes to make this art imitate life.
Barron’s medium of choice is silicone.
His finished pieces will be worn as facial prosthetics by people who have been visibly disfigured through birth defect, disease or trauma — people like Steve Butler.
“I mastered the technique of making silicone look like skin,” explains Barron as he picks up the half-face with the moustache.
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