Artist Interview on YouTube

Artist Interview

Check out this video to see my design and to receive some fabulous art advice from the lead singer of my favorite band, Showbread.


I would love (as I said several times in the video) to hear your answers to these and other questions, either in the comments or via YouTube. If you are on YouTube (or have a Gmail account) be sure to subscribe to my Felicia Follum Art+ Channel.

Here are the questions I answered.

1.What does "being creative" mean to you?
2.Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do?
3.What kind of creative patterns, routines or rituals do you have?
4.What's your favorite thing you've ever created?
5.What are you trying to communicate with your art?
6.Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven't yet?
7.What's the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

You can see more of my art on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/FeliciaFollumDesign or on my blog at
My website is www.FeliciaFollum.com

The questions I responded to came from this site.

Creativity Prompt #16: Create a Music Video

This creativity prompt is to create a music video. It doesn't need to be fancy. In fact the storyboard may be enough. Often times jumping into the creative process with no reservations is all it takes to become inspired.

Find me on YouTube and subscribe to my Art+ channel. If you do create a video I would love to see it. Feel free to post it as a video response.

I created this music video around nine or ten years ago for my Digital Video class. I hope you enjoy one of my favorite songs from my all time favorite band Showbread.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you enjoy my complete goofiness in this video.

Be sure to check out my other art related YouTube videos and subscribe and answer the questions in the comments or create video response.


What are your thoughts on Valentines Day? Why?
Have you ever had a valentine?
What is the cutest thing you have ever experienced/seen a friend experience on Valenines day?
What is your favorite/least favorite valentines day candy?
Do you have a valentine this year?
What is your ideal Valentine's gift?
If you were to have a celebrity valentine who would it be?

Art In Haiti

Me sharing a a Paper Bead Lesson

Here is a post from my religion blog. I talk about my experience teaching art in Haiti leading art lessons. I will edit the post a bit. To see the original and more about the religions of Haiti and my spiritual experience check out my SckRlgn Blog.

As many of you know I was fortunate to be able to take a trip to Haiti last summer (2011). The goal of our group was to build a chicken coupe in a small village community while spreading the Good News.

One of the cultural differences led to the Haitian males taking away most of the American women’s jobs while working on the chicken house (polaye in Creole). Though frustrating for some of the ladies in our group, this was a good thing for two reasons. First, I strongly believe that it was our job to equip people rather than do for them. And second (third, fourth and fifth), this dynamic led to me being surrounded by tons of kids, and the opportunities to lead art lessons, learn some Creole, and having the chance to spend quality time with one of the older girls. One-on-one time with a role model of some sort is a major need for many young women in Haiti. In fact if I go again I plan to take nail polish to share with the young women (probably women of all ages).

The photo above is me teaching some of the order girls and young boys how to make paper beads. You can read more about the Upcycled paper beads in my tutorial. I also took around 60 friendship bracelet kits (just cut string ready to be braided or knotted) Using art to connect with people was a unique and beautiful experience. I went in with no Creole and some of the older kids knew how to count to 5 in English and say Miami. The art lessons allowed me to make friends with one of the families as well as some other kids and leaders in the community. Using art allowed us to teach each other basic language skills but also forces us to use sign language (actually having sign language experience was more beneficial than my Spanish) and other forms of communication such as body language and sounds.

I would love the opportunity to go back to the small village again, to show the kids that it was not a one-time event, but rather a sincere investment in their lives. I also have a small amount of money to take back from selling my art in response to the first trip.

Creative Prompt #14: Tattoo Design

Design a tattoo!

Whether you are seriously considering body art or not answer these questions.

If you were to get inked what would you get and where? Would it be color or black and grey? Why? What is something that is central to who you are? Is there a person you respect who you would like to honor?

If you are thinking about getting ink, write about why you want one and what it means to you. Is it as simple as liking beautiful art or as complex as representing your life story. Designing a tattoo does not mean that you or anyone actually needs to get the work done. I spent hours sketching ideas over the course of almost three years before actually committing. If your are considering a tattoo see the bottom of the post for more questions to consider.

If you are not considering getting inked you can still design some artwork or even a single heart or cross on you finger. 

More questions to consider (You can see my answers to these and more in a bit under the label tattoo)

Where are you at in life?

Are there any major life changes that will take place? Graduating high school? College? Marriage? Kids? Pregnancy?

Do you know what you want to do with you life?

If you want to be a doctor, nurse, lawyer, or other profession that is maybe not as open to the idea are you willing to cover your tattoo?

Do you still live with your parents/grandparents or others who provide for you? What do they think?

How will your body art affect the way you are treated? 

What does your get tell you?

Can your afford it?

230 Nooses for Black History Month

I hope everyone has a fantastic Black History Month!!! I wanted to share some artwork with you from my last exhibition titled "Make it Plain."

This video shows a piece names 1982 and talks about why I chose to create 230 nooses. The song playing in the background, Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday, was also written out in one of my books. As you will see he goal of my noose artwork was to help people understand a bit more about African American history and the racism that existed and to some extent still does exist. You can see images of the finished piece at the end of the video.


To see more of my art check out my YouTube channel.

Channel Your Anger: Creativity Boost #13

Though anger is typically not helpful, there are certainly some productive ways to use this emotion to create artwork. My last body of art, Make it Plain was my creative response to African American history and to the way that people still act today.

This exhibition was the result of several months of intense research, my African American Studies and Religious Studies minors (equivalents) Graphic Design minor and art major. I read around 16 books full of essays by former Klansmen as well as several African American History textbooks. The video below shares one of the Essays written by General Nathan Bedford Forrest (the man Forrest Gump was named after).

If all this research was not enough to make me angry I have seen racism in many forms throughout my life including murders by the KKK, car bombings, and smaller things that hurt just as much over time.

I tell you all this because I want you to channel the negativity that you experience this month or over time and use it to create powerful and beautiful artwork. There are so many topics that can be covered. I teach adults with disabilities (which could be a topic on it's own) and many of my students are extremely passionate about the R word and bullying. Other topics I have addressed include Native Americans and Indian Reservations, World Water, HIV/AIDS, KONY2012, Christianity/Religion, the LGBTQ community and several others.  My current and in-progress body of work deals with human trafficking and sex slavery.

As an artist who focuses on Social Justice, it would be very easy to get bogged down with all the garbage. Art has allowed me to channel that anger and share difficult topics with others in a beautiful and non-threatening way.

Tell what you think in the comments and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel.