Graduation!

I recently graduated from an online course to become a Pro- Makeup artist and was chosen as the top student of the class and I am now featured on their website. I wanted to share my story of my passion for this field as well as the final piece I created for graduation. For my final piece, I wanted to do a look that not only shows my talent as aspiring makeup artists but also my passion for creating art. I am obsessed with butterflies and for this piece I wanted to make my eyes look like the side view of butterfly wings. I love to use bright bold colors against very black “false and dramatic” eyelashes and feathers. I actually made these lashes by cutting down feathers and adding them to a set of eyelashes from the Makeup Forever line. This look took me about 4 hours to complete due to the technical aspects of making the lashes and applying all the makeup, and I feel that it shows my ability as well as passion for creating any style with makeup.

My love for makeup came at a very young age. I remember growing up and my mother buying my sisters and me little play makeup kits and I would keep mine nice and neat and I was so fascinated at how different colored eye shadows and lipsticks made the face change. In junior high and high school I was known as the “makeup guru” any little amount of money I would make from babysitting I would spend on different eye shadow colors or lip glosses; you name it I had to have it. I was known for my dramatic cat eye eyeliner and different eye shadow colors that would match my outfits. For Halloween I would take liquid eyeliner and draw spider webs with spiders coming from my eyes. My first job as a practicing makeup artists began when I was a senior in high school, and that is truly when I fell in love with the makeup artistry industry. I began doing makeup for proms and moving my way up to wedding parties. The owner of the salon found it so fascinating that I could take one look at the persons complexion and know exactly what shade of makeup to use and what color eye shadows would suite the person well and how to apply the products well without any formal training. For proms all the girls loved my “glitter line” which I would draw a very thin line of glitter (any color) above the eye liner to enhance the eye shadow and really make the eye pop. But what really made me want to become a professional makeup artist was the joy I would leave on girls faces as well as older women after they had a mini transformation. Just by simply applying products to the face to enhance someone’s natural beauty and have that person beam and be so grateful for how you made them look and feel afterwards is really an amazing feeling. Graduating from this school was an amazing experience and I really did learn a lot and want to further my career as a makeup artist.

Getting Caught!

In high school my sister and I would always go over to my friend Ann-marie’s house after school to just hang out and walk to the beach and to 7-11 for slurpies. One night we were coming back from the beach and they decided that they wanted to take the ‘short cut’ which involved hopping a fence and going through a section of the woods to the other side of the block. Well jumping fences was never my forte and just as I was about to jump down, some how my 2 bracelets got caught on the fence and I literally tumbled over and just hung from my wrist! Of course my reaction was pure panic and laughing at the fact that of course I would be the one to literally get caught on the fence. My friend had to go and get her step father to cut me loose from the fence and when I was freed, not only did I loose my bracelets and a little bit of dignity; but I also split my pants!

                                                         Talk About Getting Caught!!

A Woman's Loneliness

She sits there, waiting. Her heart yearning for him to come. He rarely does. She knows he is with another; laughing, touching. She lights another cigarette. She remembers being here before, loving someone who loved another. Why is she putting herself through this again she wonders to herself.

The sound of the noisy city outside bring no relief from her loneliness. She reaches for the phone again. Again the call goes to voicemail. Busy with his happiness, a happiness she herself is denied. The cigarette ash falls to the floor, unnoticed. Sitting back in the armchair, she looks around the dimly lit room and remembers the happy times. A time when he loved only her. 

She walks across the smoke filled room and turns off the small desk-top lamp. The room is in darkness but for the patchwork of shadows cast by the light from the brightly lit city. She puts the glass to her lips and finishes the drink that she had found to be a good friend. Without a sound she leaves the room, closing the door behind her. 

A phone rings in an empty room, next to it sits an empty glass. 

This story was inspired by watching episodes from Sex and the City; its about Carrie and Mr. Big's relationship problems.

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The Calm before the Storm

The Calm before the Storm….

Friday evening, sitting on the train after a long and stressful week of work, all I could think about was the tense situation that waited for me at home. You see I decided to move closer to my job; and I thought this would be a smooth transition for me.

I told my landlord I was moving and was nice to give her 2 months notice when I really had to give just one. Up until this point everything was great living there… until Friday evening when I arrived home.

Unapparent to me; my landlord decided to enter my apartment and take pictures of my place to post on craigslist so she could rent it right away. Not knowing this was done, and not knowing that she was showing my apartment to strangers while I was not home, I came home Friday night to my apartment that was broken into and the television and entertainment system stolen from someone whom she let in to see the apartment…

This was just the icing on the cake to my crazy stressful week….the saga continues

A minute to Spare- Blog entry #2

                                A Minute to Spare?

Working at a school, I am faced with many questions and phone calls from parents looking for a program for their child; or local districts looking for a seat for a child (ages 3 to 5). But last week I received a strange phone call, one that I thought was a prank call at first but after giving a listening ear; and as the caller put it “A minute to spare”, I realized it was someone in desperate need of guidance in the right direction.

Now normally if my boss or coworker hear calls like this, they just reply with “Sorry I can’t help you” or a more brutal response of just hanging up on them; but I have a heart and I like to help everyone, and I did have a minute to spare. This woman was looking for help for an elderly man who is in his early 70’s and is in desperate need of finding a job to survive. Can you imagine 70 years old and are looking to work?!  His mother took care of him his whole life and recently passed away, and he is on dialysis, has no education and is considered to be mentally disabled, but cannot survive on his disability pay and is seeking employment.

I felt so bad for the woman telling me the story of how she is looking for help, for anyone to just steer her in the right direction to help this man. She’s gone to libraries, hospitals, colleges, any place that she can just get some sort of information on where to look to help this gentleman so he can maintain his independence. A simple request of “Do you have a minute to spare”; one that most people would just quickly say no to, I decided to take the time out and listen to her and assist her.

Within the 25 minutes I took out of my busy day, I was able to help her find a center who could aide this gentleman with not only a life coach, but also a job coach for the mentally disabled as well as special programs out there that help those with special needs (weather physical or mental) maintain their independence and an opportunity to survive. All she was looking for was someone to help her help another. She said something to me that I will never forget; she said to me “it is so rare to find a selfless person willing to help those in need, and willing to just listen to people and listen to their life stories, sometimes all one person needs is someone to spare that minute to change their life.”

Assignment 1- The Busy Life of a Green-Eyed Butterfly

The Busy Life of a Green-Eyed Butterfly

I’d have to say, at my age I would not dream that I would be where I am today, and getting there was not easy. I grew up a normal life, I have an older sister and I am a twin; however my twin and I look nothing alike! At the age of 20 I decided I would leave my parents nest in long island and sore to a new location; The Big City of Manhattan.

I have a huge personality so I knew that I would not be scared to venture out on my own. Everything just looks so much different than the suburbs in long island. Towering buildings, trains quickly slithering like snakes through the tunnels underground, and what really caught my attention was the enormous array of art work and culture scattered throughout the city.  This is my new home, and I couldn’t wait to make my mark here; but where and how would I begin?

I knew I wanted to go to school; but I did not know what to study. I first obtained my degree/certification as a Medical Assistant; but I just was not passionate about it. Then I decided to venture out and work at a preschool; and although I love working with children, I still was not happy with the path I was going down. I needed something else, something more hands on and something that I could really portray my artistic abilities….Make-up Artistry!

Walking into the makeup store on 34^th street was overwhelming and thrilling at the same time. Hues of blues, greens, purples and pinks, shades of greys and black. Colors of eye shadows and lipsticks you would never dream of using. And the glitter! So much glitter. I knew I found my true passion in life, and I knew that having the ability to use my artistic skills would not only help me throughout my career; but also would guide me through school.

Now I am living in Queens, New York, working at a preschool as an Assistant Director, a tutor and a Make-up Artist; but I also have my Associates Degree, and will be graduating next year with my Bachelor’s Degree, and while some say they just don't understand how I handle it all, I am proud to say I have done this all on my own.

About Me

Hello everyone! My name is Danielle Morris and I am currently pursuing my Bachelor's Degree in Visual Arts. I have taken Digital Art I and II, so I am hoping my experience in those classes will help me with this class. Good luck everyone :-)