Tuesday, June 21, 2016

April 2016 #CreativeSprint

Day 1 Make something that fits in the palm of your hand,  using only materials from your immediate environment.

Day 2 Author Hans Christian Anderson was born on this day in 1805. Make something inspired by a children's fable or fairy tale.

Day 3 Make something inspired by your own name. 


Day 4 Take a 5 minute walk with no set destination. Make something with whatever materials you can find where you've ended up. Leave it for someone else to find but don't forget to document it first!

Day 5 What do you collect? Work with a collection of your own or borrow one.

Day 6 Look in your kitchen or a grocery store for inspiration. Work with the first fruit or vegetable to catch your eye (canned or frozen counts!)

Day 7 Observe a pet or watch a video of your favorite animal. Make something inspired by it.

Day 8 Make something while you are in the bathroom or with materials found in the bathroom, today.

National Cinderella Day
Day 9 Make up your own new holiday and show us how to celebrate it.

Day 10 Use water as your medium or inspiration, today.

"Pillowtalk" by Zayn

Day 11 Make something inspired by the last song or piece of music you listened to.

Day 12 Work with only what you find in your pockets or bag, today.

Day 13 Transform something you thought was trash into something you want to keep.

Day 14 Create something inspired by an email, text or other message that you receive today.

Day 15 Work with your non-dominant hand. If you are usually right-handed use your left, if you are left-handed use your right. If you are ambidextrous use your nose ;)

Day 16 Create something that makes you laugh out loud.

Day 17 It's national poetry month! Write a poem or make something inspired by a poem you like.

Day 18 Break something and make something new with the parts.

Day 19 Scan a newspaper or news site and make something inspired by today's headlines.

Day 20 Find a creative way to give someone a compliment.

Day 21 Do something intentionally wrong today.


Day 22 Make whatever you want, today, but do it in a public place - park, library, coffee shop - get someone to take a photo of you doing it!

Day 23 Make a disguise and take a picture of yourself wearing it. Bonus: Get someone to take a photo of you wearing it in public!

Day 24 Take something that you made with you wherever you go, today. Take pictures of it in different places or with different people throughout the day.

How to make SALMON CAKES
A can of pink salmon

One egg
Tsp lemon juice
About tsp of seasonings (curry, garlic powder, dill weed, black pepper, seasoning salt, ground mustard seed, thyme, ground ginger, paprika)
Tbsp honey
Flour
Olive oil
1. Drain salmon. Mix all (except flour and oil) together in a bowl
2. Add flour to coat mixture and mix
3. Form into patties
4. Optional: Coat with bread crumbs
5. Heat olive oil in frying pan, enough to coat bottom of pan
6. Fry patties about 5 minutes each on both sides on medium high heat.
7. Drain oil and eat. Good with rice, corn bread and kale.
Day 25 Teach us how to do something.

 
 Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, a former member of the group TLC, was born on this day in 1970. This watercolor painting for the song “Waterfall” by TLC. This bedazzled miniature flower pot for the song “Red Light Special” by TLC.
Day 26 Take your inspiration from something that happened today in history.


Day 27 Create something in collaboration with another CreativeSprinter, today.

My assignment: Describe three ways to creatively use old greeting cards.
  1. Make the cards into a book. I actually have a book of old greeting cards. I used an old photo album – Saddle_Sewing504_1024x1024.jpgthe ones with the clingy plastic overlay – and inserted a card on each page. You can’t see the inside of the cards in this way so I was thinking how else can the cards be made into a book where you can see both the inside and outside of the card? Make the cards into a saddle-stitch book. I will eventually make one out of some cards I have at home in a bag and post later. But there are lots of great tutorials out there on how to make a saddle-stitch book. Here is one that I like: Saddle Stitch Binding. If the cards will end up being a really thick book then use the Coptic Stitch method: Coptic Stitch Binding or make two books (as the coptic stitch is very work intensive.
  2. Frame as artwork. I wouldn’t do every single card you have this way but select no more than 5 of your favorite cards and frame them as if they were art. If you want the inside of the card on display as well; photo copy it, arrange and glue the card and copy next to each other on a piece of poster board or cardboard, cut to fit in the frame, and hang on your wall. In this photo, the person matted three cards in a single frame. The mat holes were cut the same size and the cards were floated in that space.DSC_0095-21.jpg
  3. Decoupage. If you aren’t that attached to your cards but keep them for the image on the front, cut off the front of each card and decoupage them onto an item like a small table, canvas, wooden box, etc. There are many tutorials online for decoupaging. Here is a good very basic one for doing it on canvas How to Decoupage. (You could also still scan in the message part of the cards and keep as digital files.) In this photo, the person decoupage images on individual wooden plaques and arranged them artfully on the wall. 
Day 28 Call someone you haven't spoken to in a long time. Tell them what you are doing and ask them to give you an assignment for what to make today.

Day 29 Ask someone you respect to look through your past month's work and select their favorite one. Revise or refine the work they selected for today's task.

Day 30 Make a trophy or another award for yourself.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

On Display - "Ajani" and "Textured Locs" by Unicia R. Buster

Please check out the Pine Camp Art Exhibit where I have two pieces on display - the textile piece from the previous post and a photograph.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

"Ajani" by Unicia R. Buster

A quilt that began in 2012, "Ajani" is finally finished. I wanted it to be a part of a Black History Month art exhibition at Pine Camp Arts and Community Center this year, 2016. I got frustrated with this quilt some time ago and put it away for a year or so. Then last year, something made me revisit it, and I completed the border, put together the sandwich and began quilting the layers together. I put it down again until I got a call asking me to participate in this art show. In two weeks, I finished the free-motion quilting, put on a binding, added a few more embellishments and stitched my signature. (Between you and I, I may tweak a few more things after the show.)
"Ajani" by Unicia R. Buster

Close-up of "Ajani" by Unicia R. Buster

Close-up of "Ajani" by Unicia R. Buster
Quilt designed from my own original photo taken in 2004 with TMax 400 b/w film. 



I also have one photograph on display. There are many other prominent RVA area artists exhibiting in this show.

The show opens February 5, 2016 at 6:30PM. Pine Camp is located at 4901 Old Brook Road, RVA 23227. If you can, please come out and join us.



The exhibition is up until March 4, 2016

Monday, December 14, 2015

Artwork now available for purchase!

Purchase prints, canvases, tote bags, t-shirts, phone cases, even shower curtains.
Visit http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/unicia-buster.html to purchase my artwork or use the widget on the right. Thank you in advance for your support!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

#CreativeSprint featured me on their page.

My 30-day creativity challenge done with #CreativeSprint was featured on their website. I am very appreciative. Thank you #Creativesprint.co

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

October #CreativeSprint 2015

In October I joined #CreativeSprint 30-day challenge.

Each day in October, I received an email with a creative prompt/assignment. My job was to interpret the prompt however I liked and share a photo of what I did.

In this community of online sharing, I not only felt obligated to keep up with my daily post, but also I felt motivated but all of the other creative spirits going through the same experience as me. It was a lot of fun seeing what others came up with given the same assignment - almost like being back in school but way more fun and relaxed.

I combined this challenge with my Afros365 challenge of creating Afros for a year. This in some ways limited some of my ideas and I ended up, on some of the assignments, doing two creatives for those days. In some ways, limiting myself hindered my efforts because I was trying so hard to "make it work" for both challenges. I had to just let it go and do two.

I learned a lot about challenging myself and completing tasks.  I learned that life is short. You start off thinking a month is a long time, but how quickly it goes by, especially when you are having fun. I also learned, and am still learning, that I was able to keep my motivation for this project and Afros365 because I love crafting more than I love art. I don't know what this means for the future of my art but I am enjoying the ride.

DAY 1 DREAM SMALL. People who aspire to do great things can change the world. Having big goals is a wonderful way to find purpose in your work. However, Big Ideas and Big Goals can be daunting or worse, completely paralyzing. That's why it is important to begin with something small.
Make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only the materials in your immediate environment.

DAY 2 Make something inspired by or using the letters of your first name (or your initials if you prefer).

DAY 3 Give a face to something that normally doesn't have one.

DAY 4 Make something with the contents of your pockets or bag.

DAY 5 Make a container, something that can hold something else.

DAY 6 PERFECTION IS OVERRATED. Probably one of the biggest creative stumbling blocks is our need for getting things right. The reality is that treating your creations as precious little things to protect keeps you from the world of possibilities that comes from trying new things out, making mistakes, and getting things wrong. Make something with your eyes closed.

DAY 7 Make something inspired by a guilty pleasure.

DAY 8 Recreate or interpret a work of art you admire.



DAY 9 Break something and make something new with the parts


DAY 10 Make something inspired by your favorite childhood game.

DAY 11 Work with the unexpected. When you are trying to make something and it doesn’t come out the way you want we are inclined to label it a mistake or a failure, or junk. But what if we change the semantics of that and say its unexpected results. There’s opportunity in unexpected results, you can learn from that and at the end of the day that is where you will find innovative new solutions. Spill something and make something with or inspired by the mess.

DAY 12 Choose any activity you normally do today and do it backwards.

DAY 13 Use the front page of a newspaper or cover of a magazine as materials or source of inspiration, today.

DAY 14 Walk for 5 minutes without any specific destination in mind, make something with or inspired by whatever is available where you end up.

DAY 15 Learn about something that happened today in history and make something inspired by it.

DAY 16 Make something that combines two things that are not usually found together.

DAY 17 Give It Away. It may sound counter-intuitive, but you get a lot from giving things away. And this relates not only to things but ideas and even simply opening a door and inviting people into your working process, sharing your practice and methodology. Doing this is essential to building an engaged and invested community around your work. Teach us how to do something.

DAY 18 Make something and trade it for something you want.


DAY 19 Make something for another #CreativeSprint-er.

DAY 20 Find a creative way to give someone a compliment.

DAY 21 Make something and send it snail mail to someone.

DAY 22 Make a Fool of Yourself. At some point in our lives we’ve probably been told not to make a fool of ourselves, but the fact is that’s one of the most effective ways to get inspiration! Fear of rejection and fear of embarrassment—these are the ephemeral enemies of our creativity. Make a mustache and get a photo of yourself wearing it in public.


DAY 23 Go outside and make a shrine to nature - leave it for someone to find.

DAY 24 Break a rule.

DAY 25 Make whatever you want but do it in a public place - park, library, coffee shop - get someone to take a photo of you doing it!

DAY 26 Create a frame, using any materials. Take it with you wherever you go and use it to capture anything you view as beautiful.


DAY 27 Collaborate. There’s no substitute for the benefits you get when working creatively with other people. Developing new relationships and deepening existing ones is essential to personal and professional growth. You get results that are exponentially greater when you don’t just work alone. Make something with another #Creativesprint-er.



DAY 28 Ask someone to teach you something new.


DAY 29 Ask someone to start something for you to finish.


DAY 30 Make a trophy and award it to yourself!