Creative Projects
The Ellen B Show: Poetry featuring the Austin Writer Roulette
The Making of Ms. Sandman
Anxious to put my newly acquired special FX makeup skills to the test, I gathered all of my crafting supplies together to transform myself into Ms. Sandman for an upcoming performance at the Austin Writers Roulette. The first thing I had to do was glue down my eyebrows. In class, I’d used a solid glue … Continue reading
Self Portraits
I’ve never liked drawing. Too great of a learning curve between the effort and the desired result. On several separate occasions, I’ve picked up a pad and paper to draw only to lose steam and quietly put all my drawing materials away. Yet, I keep returning to it since my creativity bends toward visual art as … Continue reading
Special FX Makeup: Scars
As soon as I walked into the classroom, I had flashbacks of teaching HS science. On one table lie mostly edible foodstuffs I had at home: Karo syrup, food coloring, cornstarch, and vaseline. Nestled in between the groceries were various makeup products along with toilet paper, cotton balls and paper towels. Welcome to Special Effects … Continue reading
All Knowing Mother
In honor of Mother’s Day, I reflected about the unsung contributions of Black women such as the generational and social network of wisdom. To represent the Black Woman Network, I used an African paper doll template, complete with a curly afro. Taking advantage of the gift of fabric given to me by a friend, each … Continue reading
Randomized Headshot
I’m always impressed by the high-tech art displayed at the Interactive Installation Meetup events. Who knows if I’ll ever understand any of it on a coding level, but theoretically I know what’s going on. So, I sat in front of a laptop, which took my headshot. Then the program randomly chose pixels to recreate the headshot. I’m … Continue reading
Aunt Teresa’s Burlesque Dictionary
Last Christmas, when my immediate family got together, I had a few conversations with one of my nephews, who was 25 at the time. During our conversations, he asked me what certain words, like “ambiguous” and “prolonged,” meant since I’d peppered my conversations with such vocabulary. At one point, I told him that if he’d read more, he’d … Continue reading
Puzzle T-Shirt
Once again, I dealt myself a challenging costume card. Not only did I have just shy of a week to complete the latest outfit, but I first had to put together a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. Following tried and true puzzle logic, I first separated out the edges, even setting aside the few pieces that were … Continue reading
Graduation Gift 2017
When my first niece graduated from high school, I gifted her a hand-made, monogramed laundry bag. It didn’t last too long. Since I learned my lesson, I bought a laundry bag to personalize for my other niece. Thanks to my handy chalk pencil, I outlined a rough draft message.Although I had a rainbow’s worth of … Continue reading