Portrait Of A Lady: Here’s How Houstonian Cindi Rose Creates Silhouettes & Magic

When the dynamic Houstonian Cindi Rose creates art, it becomes an instant heirloom. A fan favorite at weddings, galas, birthday parties, and other landmark events, if you want to find her, you can always Google: World’s Best Silhouette Artist. And there she is. The auburn-haired ball of fire has revived a centuries-old art favorite at a young age and has spent a lifetime modernizing it to the delight of all her fans and portrait recipients. The busy wife, mother, skincare expert, and artist catches up with her decades-long friend, our Lance Avery Morgan to share her super stylish insight on how to be more creative and how to live a more vibrant life.  

Portrait photography courtesy of Cindi Rose

The easiest decision I ever made…Was to work full-time at Walt Disney World as a silhouette artist, and then as an art manager, upon college graduation from the University of Texas at Austin. 

I love working with clients with my art…Because I connect to them at their soul level, inspire them, and can bring joy to their and my own hearts, leaving a lasting memory, and a monument to a moment.  

I find I am…Witty. Funny. And, always laughing because we all like to find humor. I believe that smiling helps you live longer.  

Due to SilhouettesbyCindi.com…I have found that I can travel the world and get paid while meeting people of all walks of life, races, political views, income levels, and physical and mental conditions. We are all children of God, loved and created with love.

I made my first dollar…By drawing my neighbor’s home. My mother was an architect, so that was easy because she always did art with me.  

Last thing I binge, marathon watched was… Soft White Underbelly, I like to understand how people have tremendous challenges and end up on the street. I once saved a homeless, and hired him to be an artist, at Six Flags Over Texas (formerly Astroworld), letting him sleep in my office above the Main Street Emporium when the park was closed. He was my highest producer, but not my best artist. It shows, that when you are hungry, and try hard, you can succeed. If you do believe in more than your ego you definitely can survive in an evolved way. 

I currently love reading…Colleen Hoover, since she is a Texas writer and a New York Times best-selling author. I am impressed with how she fully creates characterizations and plots. I love that her dialogue is so easy to read.  

My favorite fictional character…Is Dorian Gray. I understand vanity because I am married to a plastic surgeon. Youth is beautiful, yet aging is not easy unless you look at how fortunate you are to live each day and contribute to the world in any small way. My sister, Holly Harwood Skolkin, died of Stage 4 cancer, so I value life. In her memory, and while she was alive, I created the 501 (c) (3)  called The Holly Rose Ribbon Foundation, and have saved (with my husband Franklin Rose, MD, over 99 lives and helped raise over a million dollars. I do not take a salary, yet I do this from my silhouette art and fundraising events.

My real-life hero…Was my sister, Holly who took her Stage 4 cancer and fought it with love and good deeds. She lived 15 years, not 3 months.  People felt she was Buddha and traveled miles for her blessings.  

If I could be in a foreign city, it would be…London. I already have many friends there and have been fortunate to silhouette the former Queen in person, as well as Sarah, Duchess of York.  

The first music I bought was…The Beatles and I think they are still relevant. 

Everyone in their life, should try…Smiling each day for three minutes, as odd as that sounds, it puts a smile in your heart.

If I was not doing what I do, I would…In addition to doing everything else I love to do in life, I would love to write and illustrate a children’s book.  

My hidden talent…is that I am psychic. I have worked for a detective, and was paid, and solved mysteries. I can connect my soul to other souls and get information, and as an artist, and creative, I can “un-ground” myself and create from a different level. Often, I do “psychic silhouettes” in which I give intuitive readings and capture the outside and inside of people. In fact, I can tell everyone five things about themselves, past and future, and be spot-on.

If I had a superpower, it would be…Computer science.

A simple way to get people to laugh…is to make fun of yourself.

A phase I overuse is…like or 100 percent.  

My motto is…You plan and God laughs. So, I plan, and if it does not work my way, I know there is always a lesson to learn, a better plan to make, or different timing that can happen. I also don’t worry because it solves nothing. Action is how to replace that.

My favorite scent is…Comptoir Sud Pacifique from Paris.

The beauty essential you would have to pry out of my cold dead hands is…My surgical scissors. With my silhouette art, I create beauty with them, find beauty, and give beauty. On the surface level, I use Bentonite edible clay to tighten my skin. I also own a skin-care line, at Utopia Plastic Surgery & Med Spa. 

A celebrity I would prank phone call…is Elon Musk. I’d interview him by letting him speak and then by cutting his silhouette to pick up his energy.

A style I identify with is…that of Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn. They always look athletic, happy, intelligent, and with values.

If I had to shop in one neighborhood it would be…The Magnificent Mile in Chicago, I would need a hunky bodyguard, too.

A style icon would be…I adore Frida Kahlo. Her art is realism, down to the soul, and there is no way to define it.  

In my fridge, you’ll find…Homemade real almond and seed milk. It is also raw and has probiotics. I am a food nerd, so believe that live sprouted foods are healthy. So can I sprout, too.

My favorite beverage is…I will have what he/she is having. I will even try pickle juice, the beer you recommend or the wine you recommend.

On my tombstone, it will be…simple. It will say Beloved Mother, Wife, Grandmother, Sister, Daughter, And Possibly, Artist.

My perfect day…Is always the day I have landed in a new city, state, or country, to do silhouettes (done free-hand, in minutes, without a light, sketch, and for hundreds of people at events) and then to discover new foods, new sights, new people, different cultures, a speck of growth, history being made, or history erased. Imperfections that are just perfect.