Turning ideas, dreams and fantasies into physical form is not for the timid or faint of heart. It requires a particular strain of creative audacity, the kind that thrives in the space between art and illusion.

Las Vegas artist Eva Jacqueline knows this terrain well. Through a constant evolving blend of technical skill and artistic instinct, she helps craft hyperrealistic creations that unsettle, fascinate and captivate global spectators in equal measure. 

Jacqueline’s creative lineage is an eclectic one. With roots in photography, painting and graffiti, she once pursued archaeology, drawn to the craft of excavation. That academic curiosity eventually led her toward casting techniques, a foundational skill in the world of special effects. 

That path ultimately brought her to Break All Productions, a local fabrication studio founded in 2013 by master special effects craftsman Joshua Brokaw. Over the past seven years, Jacqueline has honed her artistic abilities within the studio’s workshop, developing skills that range from sculpting and painting to large-scale building and scenic design. 

Break All has built a reputation for embracing projects that demand both imagination and technical bravado, whether it’s constructing blood-gushing prosthetics for film, engineering stage environments for massive events like EDC, or crafting immersive worlds for major conventions and entertainment experiences. 

Today, Jacqueline is an integral part of Break All’s network of visionary builders, artists and craftspeople. She’s in it for the long run, and only wants to go bigger and get better. 

Was there a specific project that made you realize working in special effects could be a career for you?

When we were about to pull off a rushed job and worked over 24 hours. I was like, I think I was born to do this. 

What was the job? 

These columns for Louis Vuitton; it was for a window display. The thing with foam is it’s usually two parts, so you’ll have that kind of foam that you can carve, and then you can mold that. And then you can also pour foams. So, we were pouring foams ... You mix it together, and then it rises 10 times, 20 times. They have so many different grades. And then we were beating the clock, we’re like, the van’s going to get here at 8 a.m., we have this amount of material left! And for scale, these columns were 16 feet high.

That’s bigger than I was picturing. 

That’s the thing that’s a little different about Break All. Other special effects shops, sometimes they’ll make regular props that are smaller scale, and they’re more like prosthetic application. We do large scale, full builds, sets and molds.

What were some early projects or mentors that helped shape your approach to your work? 

Joshua [Brokaw], that’s the owner. He [has] an ability to recognize abilities. He can choreograph all of these different types of people together; everybody is very misfit. We all come from various backgrounds, and nobody’s here to challenge each other. We get to create together and then fashion these ideas.

And Frank Marano, he’s another local, awesome effects artist. Joshua Counsel, a body painter from Australia, he used to work for Universal Studios. And Jake Wyman ... He’s one of the first Break All employees. 

What’s the most surprising skill you’ve picked up throughout your career so far? 

Ooh, carpentry. I didn’t have much of a builder background, but now I’m fusing building with making. So not only learning how to do carpentry for structural integrity, but learning how to do it creatively. I’m not just building tables and furniture. I’m building the housing of the skeletal structure. 

Has a client ever pitched an idea that seemed impossible? How does the team approach that? 

Don’t tell us what can be done. One of our hashtags that we use all the time is “fabricate anything.” Dude, we want the alternative clients. We want the people who are daring to push boundaries on the materials we’re using. Maybe not push boundaries on time limits or budget, but more on the idea of what we can do to translate cool ideas and activations of visions. 

What project are you most proud of working on?

I really enjoyed Particle Ink. I like to be a part of something that may not be forever permanent, but I liked the temporary permanence that our set had and that it served a purpose of inspiration. It was really special. We didn’t just perpetuate consumerism on that job. 

What’s something that the average person might not realize about your job?

The manipulation of everyday items. You’d be surprised what some of these materials are—a lot of household things. 

You’re a woman in a male-dominated field. What has that experience been like?

I think when you get into the builder side of it ... sometimes it can be hard to define credibility in certain ways. Sometimes there’ll be little arguments with tough guys, but that’s the thing-—you’ve got to break that at the door at a place like this. It’s a creative building, so throw your rules out of the window.

What continues to excite you about your job?

It’s exciting to create something that’s used for our growing visual, audio and textural culture of art. We’re contributing to whether something is amateur or professional. We’re contributing to the expression and the fulfillment of art and the perpetuations of that being a way to storytell, using tangible, large, physical items to supplement some type of portrayal, versus giving material to be read and seen. 

We’re half experience, half art. Stuff gets pretty freaking redundant and we need more exciting things. We need things that stop us, that confuse us. 

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