Halloween may be Terri Vadino’s favorite holiday. It is certainly the one that gets her creative imagination going.

She recently started adding to the scary fun at a local haunted attraction, where actors line up for full-face make-up in a wide variety of ghoulish makeovers. In fact, one of the features of Vadino’s work is the fact that she likes to consult with her clients and create an original look.

The Press met up with Vadino and local model Tamantha Yanders to see some of the magic at work. We met in the photography studio of Dave Frei (www.dfreiphoto.com) in Allentown. There Yanders, a well-known local model who has worked for Pamela Ptak Couture and for QVC shopping network as a clothing and beauty model, settled onto a high chair while Vadino got to work. The two had previously consulted over the phone and settled on a ghostly theme.

Vadino, originally from the Poconos, now lives and works in Allentown. She has practiced her “hobby” for about seven years while entertaining herself and her friends with her unique facial art.

“It has always been therapeutic for me,” Vadino said. “Then I got my first paid gig [at a local amusement park,] and fell in love with it”

“I have loved art since I was a child – I have been drawing and painting since I was old enough to hold a pencil,” Vadino said. “I love transforming the human face. You can really make some great creations that way. I started to gravitate toward the horror genre; it was sort of like a hobby that took off for me!”

She started posting some of her images on social media and started attracting attention and making fans.

“Originally, I shared my photos because I wanted to show my friends and family how much fun I was having,” she said. “I have always loved to create, and working on a three-dimensional, living figure was new and exciting for me. It wasn’t until my posts that I had people reaching out to me requesting my artistry for personal and business projects.

“I started drumming up interest that way. People were saying, ‘Hey, can you do this, can you do that? I will never say ‘no’, because I am so captivated by anything eccentric.”

Whatever the future holds, Vadino brings a can-do attitude and an infectious laugh to the job. She and her model, Tamantha, seemed to be best friends at the end of the session. If you want to contact Terri, email her at: terrivadino@yahoo.com.