For the February 2016 edition of their ‘You do what?!’ feature, Oprah Magazine searched females with extraordinary Mardi Gras related professions –and found them in Kern Studios’ very own Tina and Ali McCrosky.

Tina started with Kern Studios in 1995, working as a prop painter: “Our family moved to New Orleans in 1993. One day, we took the Mardi Gras World tour and I never forgot I was thinking ‘it would be so cool to be able to work here’. When my children were in school full days I wanted to go back to work and the first ad that caught my eye in the jobs section of the paper, was from Kern Studios. As if it was meant to be!

Ali, now a senior sculptor with Kern Studios for over 10 years, practically grew up at Kern Studios, joining her mother after school and playing in the studio. She felt she was destined to become a painting artist like her mother, but it work out a little different:

“For the longest time I thought that I was supposed to be a painter because my mom is a painter, as is my grandmother. And when I officially made my move into the painting department, it was really fun. For about a week… Then I realized that something didn’t feel right. I wasn’t losing track of time like I did when I was doing even the simplest styrofoam prop repairs. I was pretty shocked to realize that maybe I was supposed to be a sculptor and not a painter.”

_{New Orleans, February 1st 2016}