21 Minus 2014 Poster

Riso printed posters for 21 Minus 2014. Collaborative design with Ayo Idowu and Eli Adams.

Alice In Wonderland

Down The Rabbit Hole

Eat Me/Drink Me

 Pool of Tears

The Cat and the Caterpillar

 The Tea Party

 The Duchess

The Queen's Garden

Printed magazine photographs cut and collaged, photographed, photoshopped and inverted, printed as film negatives, printed in darkroom as film photogram prints, covered in glitter. Spring 2014.

superhero

Ink self portrait as a super hero

spirit of america

up close

oil paint portrait on 30x40" canvas

she was always getting lost

photoshopped inspiration board based off of the nyc color palate of my view of the bridge from dumbo.

dressing lately

(tutu and leather jacket topshop, crop top and beanie urban outfitters, boots doc martens)

 (tutu and coat topshop)

dressing lately has been all about the combination of pink fluffy things and black leather things.

kimono

i bought this kimono from a japanese drum performance group and am fully obsessed with it.

the book shelf

i received a photography challenge to look around the room and document somewhere i didn't belong and chose my bedroom bookshelf. i'm working on incorporating this photo into my next project...

sicp gallery

this month I was featured in st. ignatius college prep's school magazine. see the full article here: https://www.ignatius.org/pdf-content/publication/Ignatius%20Magazine/Ignatius%20Magazine%20-%202014%20Winter.pdf (page 16)

self portrait

minimalist self portrait series 

(35 mm b/w film photos i shot,developed,printed.)

restless

below is the first spoken word piece i've ever written which i performed at louder than a bomb on saturday february 22, 2014.

restless
by colleen allen

I am 

restless energy, 

one who feels she doesn't inhabit her own body, her own ethnicity.

a catalyst for all things creativity.

I may be a minimalist but I’ll never be simplicity.

I floated along until you came to vibe with me. 

you are 

a kaleidoscope,a zoetrope,

a vessel of intensities.

 a one way ticket into a world 

of accidents invitations and curiosity.

consuming us both, 

cause as consumers the view is the only thing left that's free. 

trading sustainability for so called liberty, 

we swallow it whole with wide eyes and shallow breath. 

let it sit in our stomachs 

rotting away from all of the caffeine.

but soon for you, like most it was all too much 

and your mind faded from rhyme scheme to prose like, 

our two minds together we’re too complex. 

we set out to find the perfect shade of indigo

because you said it didn’t exist in nature.

and when we did, 

that scared you. 

or how I was going to make eggs for breakfast

but i smashed their fragile shells with bare hands

and sat on the kitchen table sketching them for hours

with yokes so beautiful i wanted to mount them on the east kitchen wall 

to glow with the morning sunrise 

but I couldn’t do that because like everything they’ll rot.

and for weeks 

the smell will linger. 

lingering like the deconstruction you couldn’t take

because with your kaleidoscope mind my infatuation with decay 

multiplied and festered in your own insecurity. 

you began to pull us apart in order to save me. 

you occupy a state of present

with crisp sleeves rolled 

past the scar on you left wrist. 

i need you.

physically lost in translation, 

transition.

the blood sloshes around my skull. 

tucking thin strands of hair 

behind my ear 

with numb fingers. 

spewing words with singed tongues 

into the thick evening air. 

protesting our cataclysmic extinction. 

but your feet push through 

my heavy streets. 

because this ticket is one way 

the one i thought led to we. 

the train, it broke down, 

i forgot where i belong 

but suddenly i realized,

you were driving all along.

you shove me, 

plead me,

out of my chemistry.

nurturing out of nature,

you bring myself back to me. 

louder than a bomb 2014

yesterday i competed in a poetry slam for the first time. it was such an honor to participate in louder than a bomb; the biggest youth poetry competition in the world. i performed both an individual piece entitled "restless" (see 10:30) and in my school team piece entitled "is this the world we live in?" (see 19:33).

eggistential

eggs really are fascinating. (digital photography.)

see no evil

(35 mm b/w film photos i shot,developed,printed.)

polaroid printing

these prints are created from the inside of polaroid photos. i took one picture of my left eye and then one picture of my right eye. then, i opened the polaroid and the pink print is what was inside. then, i stamped the ink onto paper to create black and white prints. 

miss america

 (the before shot)

photos inspired by cindy sherman's pageant mom project.
(35 mm b/w film photos i shot,developed,printed.)