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Southern Tier Life / June 2021 / ISSUE 004
ROB RUMSEY- FULFILLING HIS DESTINY by Cat White
“As quaint as Elmira was, it wasn’t a safe place for me to prosper,” says Robert Rumsey, former Southern Tier resident turned makeup artist whose work has graced the covers of Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and many other fashion and entertainment magazines that he was enamored with as a young, gay kid growing up in the 1970s and 80s in the Upstate NY region. “Because I was a young, gay creative, there was no future there for me,” he says. Rumsey attended Ernie Davis Middle School, participated in Long-distance running at Elmira Free Academy and expressed his creativity through art, photography, and theater growing up in Westside Elmira.
“I wanted to have actual experiences, not just read about them.” After working retail and food service gigs, Rumsey decided to get serious and pursue his artistic interests professionally. He has spent the past 30 years steadily building a career as a makeup artist, starting at department store makeup counters and rising to work with some of America’s hottest entertainers, including Carly Rae Jepson, Tate McRae, Finneas, Gracie Abrams and many others. He traveled the globe with Miley Cyrus’ 2014 Bangerz world tour, worked an array of entertainment awards shows, in addition to donating his time and talents to many charitable events and causes in the Los Angeles LGBTQIA++ community, where he currently lives. “The best way to break down barriers is to interact with people different from you,” Rumsey explains. “I need to be informed by experience.” Most recently, Rumsey accomplished one of his lifelong dreams and received some well-deserved recognition working with one of the most enigmatic popular musicians in recent history, Billie Eilish, on her latest obsessively discussed British Vogue cover, which features a new look. Rumsey was even interviewed about his technique in the magazine he revered as a young gay man coming into his own, when he first left the Southern Tier and moved to Ithaca.
Rob is a 1989 graduate of Elmira Free Academy “Opportunities for self-expression were limited.” Rumsey, who remembers being bullied as a youth and made painfully aware by some classmates that he didn’t fit in, moved first to Corning at age 19, then to Ithaca, before taking a big leap and heading west to San Francisco in 1991.
After three decades of working in the entertainment industry, Rumsey marvels at the diverse inclusive environments in which he now finds himself collaborating with the young progressive artists currently pushing the boundaries of popular culture, music and fashion. He’s worked hard, building a reputation for easygoing flawless artistry and has established a loyal clientele. As Rumsey hustled to build a successful career in a competitive trade, he’d occasionally return to the Southern Tier to visit with family and friends, and like many ex-pats, frequent popular local
