No Masking It: Willa Shalit Loves to Make Celebrity Life Cast Sculptures

“I love the idea of touching someone and (lifting) an image from them,” says Willa Shalit, daughter of “Today” show film critic Gene Shalit.

Since 1979, Shalit, 36, has been creating life cast sculptures of the faces of such celebrities as Dalai Lama and Whoopi Goldberg. More than 30 of these life casts are featured in Shalit’s new book, “Life Cast: Behind the Mask” (Beyond Words Publishing, $29.95).

Shalit’s interest in the form is an outgrowth of her love for ancient history. After making a mask for a college theater production, she realized she could “never sculpt anything that would be as interesting, exciting or unique as the face which was behind the mask.”

Shalit says it’s been quite easy to get subjects to agree to a life cast. “A lot of people actually consider it an honor to be part of the collection,” she says.

Of course, Shalit has done a life cast of her father. “He has a wonderful face. To see his face without glasses and his hair and his bow tie, I see an essence of him that I feel in his presence.”

Proceeds from the book benefit the Touch Foundation, which sponsors “Please Touch” exhibits of work for the blind and visually impaired. Shalit says it’s very important “to blind and visually impaired people to feel included in the experience which we all have, which is looking at people’s faces.”