CREATIVITY:

Throughout my month of quarantine, I developed creativity skills orientated around being resourceful, problem solving, and baking. Over the past month, I have attempted to find ways in which I could put my creativity into action as I feel creativity is critical to put into practice during quarantine, as it allows you to release emotions, as well as an escape from the world around you for a brief moment.

Laundry:

During our quarantine in a hotel, the unusual issue of laundry was presented, looking into how we could dry our clothes during our stay. However much insignificant this issue may seem, I saw it as a challenge and opportunity to get creative. By looking at the tools we were provided, I started coming up with an idea as to how we could create a rack that could allow us to dry our clothes outside without them flying away (as it was windy). I started by gathering some materials I felt would allow us to hang our clothes up. I found some coconut string and a pair of scissors. Since we had a balcony railing, I decided to make a hanging device utilizing the balcony, and something of a similar height, so as to have the coconut string lay straight for the clothes to hang on. I decided to turn an outdoor couch on to its “head” in order for one of its panels to be level with the balcony railing. This was successful, and I wrapped the string around both in order to connect them. This proved successful, enabling us to hang up all our laundry.

Hanging up the laundry using materials available to me

Culinary Skills:

I strongly believe it is important to keep spirits up during a pandemic, thus, I decided to start developing my culinary skills for Halloween. My goal was to make brain-like vanilla cupcakes for my family. I used the following recipe: https://www.livewellbakeoften.com/vanilla-cupcakes/. Prior to making the cupcakes, I did not have food coloring to create the color I was planning for. To overcome this, I started looking around for ingredients that could create a red pigment in the cupcakes. Practicing my resourcefulness, I found beetroots in my household and searched for beetroot food coloring recipes. I found the following: https://wholefully.com/all-natural-beet-juice-red-food-coloring/#:~:text=Place%20in%20a%20small%20saucepan,eat%20the%20beets%20for%20lunch. This recipe was effective and allowed me to create the desired pink hue I was aiming for.

Boiling beetroots to get natural red food coloring

Once I baked my cupcakes, I received some constructive feedback from my family members. Overall, they found my cupcakes to be well made, however slightly dry, which can be due to the butter I used being not being softened prior as the recipe stated. I also believe it may be due to my unprecise flour measurements, as that can cause dryer cupcakes. I believe I can solve this issue by using the technique of filling the measuring cup with flour and scraping the excess flour off the top of the cup with a knife. This can help prevent my cupcakes from being dry, as I will not have an abundance of dry ingredients in my recipe.

Homemade Halloween Cupcakes

Additionally, I made some Jello, filling up a fake blood bag, syringe, and skeleton cups. This was a simpler task, as it only required me to boil water and mix jello solution. I enjoyed challenging my kitchen skills, as well as research the causes of baking outcomes, such as the dry texture of the cupcakes. I was interested in learning new techniques to overcome obstacles, such as a lack of food coloring. Building this knowledge and these skills will allow me to get even more creative in the kitchen, and concoct appetizing goods.

Face Art

Lastly, I practiced my face art techniques, using Halloween as the perfect opportunity to do so. I used black eyeshadows, makeup brushed, and black eyeliner to create the face art. I used my father’s face as a canvas, as well as my own, to create a skeleton duo look. I have not done a large amount of face art in the past, however, it is something I enjoy doing, thus I was grateful for the opportunity to practice.

My Halloween skeleton face art – me and my father

I enjoyed the process of creating the look, especially working to build illusions with the dark eyeshadows, as this new skill allowed me to build a more realistic work. This not only helped the mood of my family, but it added something special and festive to our day, which was definitely welcome. I do believe many improvements can be made, such as using white paint in order to create a stronger contrast and make the cheekbone illusion come to life, as well as use black face paint to get more pigment around the eye areas. Overall, I enjoyed getting creative, adding my own spin on the iconic skeleton look, and developing my skills with the brush. Throughout this quarantine, there was not a lot for me to do creatively, especially with the standard canvas, brush, and paint, however using the things that were available to me, getting creative on that level, allowed me to produce some visual art, and in turn, elevated my general mood.

Photograph of the face art I created on my father