“Veracity is defined as the quality of being true or the habit of telling the truth. I like to describe it as the art of truth telling. What is more truthful than our personal stories?”
Angie Veracruz, CTAC Executive Director and Community Outreach Liaison
Our Vision
CTAC’s 2019 EKPHRASIS: VERACITY will create an ekphrastic journey through history, while focusing on migration to immigration stories and the psychological effect that ripples through generations. Told by the artists and writers, or for those who’s stories they have been inspired to tell, who live and thrive in Central Texas.
Participating Artists and Writers will choose at least one of these main topics as the focus of their ekphrastic display:
- History
- suggested starting point https://wacohistory.org/
- Immigration
- suggested staring point https://www.apa.org/topics/immigration
- Mental Health
- suggested starting point https://www.nami.org/
Commitment to participate is from 2/25 through 3/25.
Payment accepted through PayPal link at the bottom, or send us an email at centexartistcollective@gmail.com for additional options.
- $30 for single participant. (Pair me up, I can work with anyone!)
- $50 for a creative duo. (I have a partner and we work well together!)
- We have removed the option for creating a second piece. Please contact us before you submit a 2nd payment for additional works.
- Ekphrastic pairing will be announced on April 1st, 2019
Sampling of four ekphrastic pairings from 2017 Ekphrasis: mind, body, soul
Artwork by Shay MacMorran past (the first time) By Jameka Byrd Alexander the first word that made you cry the first fist that made you flinch the first time that you embarrassed him in front of all his friends the first scarf in Texas summer the first sunglasses indoors drops of blood on bathroom tile the first time he broke your nose the first time you called the cops the first time you posted bail the first time you packed your bags then went back because he begged the first time you saw your baby watching daddy from the stairs the first time he quit cold turkey: the zoo, the circus, scrambled eggs the first time that his god told him that his baby’s not his kid the first time he stole your body and then begged god to forgive the first time your baby saw your tears then asked why momma cried the first time you took those pills and wrote “can’t seem to get it right…” 
Artwork by Angie Veracruz By Alicia Kobylecky There is a treasure buried deep inside her: a hope that refused to die. No matter how drenched by rains, floods, and all manners of weather. She just kept living for some inexplicable reason. Hope is strange like that. Sometimes I wish she would just go down with the ship. Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning in a fog too thick to push through. There’s me. And then the fog who’s made her home in my brain. I suppose it’s her brain too now. And mostly we’re waiting together, she and I. For what cannot be yet. I’ll go until you’re gone. Week to week; day to day, sustaining this body we share: depression and I. Brain is on a summer vacation. I keep body safe in the meantime. She ponders jumping ship. I make her return. There are rules you see: not jumping overboard, wear a life vest, send up flares. No marooning the other sailors. There is no escape to the vast ocean. Stay here. This is all we have. This ship. This life. These boards. Don’t believe pirates or their cronies. There is no land beyond these waters. Don’t you dare jump overboard. Because this is all I have. This little life sailing uncharted waters. Treacherous seas. Keep going. Keep sailing. Send up flares. Sound the alarm for help. But stay on the damn boat. The seas lie. They glitter untruths. Don’t listen. Life is more than this boat. But we must remain on the boat. Until we make it to shore. 
Artwork by Carlos Ariast right here, look at me The one you didn’t want, your very own baby You chose yourself over me Many years I waited for a call from you Birthdays, graduations, special moments all passed without you Leaving me to wonder, what’s wrong with me? Look at me, the one who has it empty, the place where a mother’s love should be and look at you, Never were what you claimed to be Said you loved me but left me when I needed you most There’s more to life than basic needs And the need to put on a show What I’ve endured you’ll never know You’ve shown me what a narcissist can be Sit right here, look at me You’ll see, the one who longs for the daddy’s girl she never got to be You opened my mind to things I shouldn’t have known I learned these things at just four years old You saw me as a perfect target to hit Not feeling loved one bit No one to show me what danger means You didn’t even care that we shared the same genes In my life you created this huge hole, That I would spend the rest of my life trying to fill Sit right here, look at me, The little girl whose innocence you killed. Depression, fear, anxiety, suicide all in me, eating me alive Surrounding my mind I can’t seem to escape this, what did I do to deserve this life? Medicine didn’t help, therapy didn’t help Just like a dying rose, I welt Thoughts of just being gone all the time The world would keep spinning without my life That’s why I wrote my first suicide note at just nine years old Longing for a childhood I never got to have Wishing for a moment I’ll never get back Struggling to just stay alive, why couldn’t someone fight for me? On my face, you can see the summaries of every painful gash Of the people who have thrown me out like the trash Worthless, that’s what I believe, come sit with me, look at me You’ll see my mind unraveling 
Artwork by Salley Schmidt Ubuntu By Michelle Shackelford Ubuntu. Ubuntu. I am because we are. I am one body because we are many parts. You are you, and you are you, and you are you, and I – well, I am me. And me is you + you + you + me. Or I. This body can’t function without these parts. I can’t function without you, you can’t function without me. Me is we. Me is we. Me is we – there’s something in that, don’t you think? Ubuntu – I am because we are. You and me and me and you and me is we. We. You + you + you + me, we’ve already said that. I’m no mathematician, but if a = b + c + d, then b + c + d = a, and so that must mean also that a = a. So if me = you + you + you + me, and if me is we, then, think with me here, we must be you + you + you + me. And we’re back to square one. Ubuntu. Ubuntu. I am because we are. And if I am because we are, then maybe we are because I am. Not I am as in I am supreme. But I am. I am me. And if I am me, then I can truly be me, can’t I? And who is me? Well, me is you + you + you + me. We. So here we go, you being you and me being me, and we being we. Because we is you + you + you + me, and Ubuntu – I am because we are. We are because you are you and I am me. So there you have it. Me is me because we are we.
Let the creative juices flow…
Creativity cannot thrive in isolation and for centuries, art and literature have complimented each other to inspire thriving art cultures around the world. Ekphrasis is a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art. Central Texas Artist Collective have been challenging writers and artists to create an ekphrastic display since 2016.
Guidelines for Creating…
Visual Artists may submit artwork in Acrylic, Airbrush, Assemblage, Charcoal, Color Pencil, Collage, Digital Art, Drawings, Encaustic, Graphite, Fiber Arts, Illustration, Mixed Media, New Media, Oil, Pastel, Traditional and Digital Photography, Textiles, Watercolor, and more.
- We will accept veracious, original artwork that fulfills Our Vision
- Literal or abstract reflection of the writer’s words or emotions
- Maximum size is 3x4ft in any medium
- All artwork on paper must be framed behind glass
- Canvas work must be gallery finished
- Discuss with your writer on how to approach the creative process
- Make a timeline towards completion
- Remember this artwork will be displayed in the downtown storefront windows, so no nudity or too much gore. Even the most subtle images can evoke an emotion.
Writers/Poets if you would like to create a true Ekphrastic poem, then you must let the artist create their piece first. This is going to require some communication and planning out a timeline towards completion. Write your piece after viewing the artist’s completed work.
- Send final written piece as a Word doc
- No less than 18 point with a 40 line limit
- Columns are accepted if easily readable with the above parameters
- For non-traditional ekphrastic poems, plan ahead with the artists
- Get to understand the why behind the creations
- In the end, however the ekphrastic display is created, it will be up to you both, Writer and Artist together.
Submission Process. Please, read fully before agreeing to participate.
Submission deadline is September 15th, 2019.
Artists, let’s keep things simple:
- Visual Artist must send in a digital image (use your cell phone) of completed artwork to centexartistcollective@gmail.com no later than September 15th;
- Not doing so will forfeit your ekphrastic display in the storefront windows downtown; therefore your writer will not be displaying either;
- In the email
- Subject line should read 2019 EKPHRASIS
- Include a brief description of your artwork specs height, width, weight (if more than 5lbs)
- Title of artwork and price
- If there are any special displaying requirements, you MUST be available on install days, Oct 2nd or 3rd for the outside exhibit and on Oct 31st at Cultivate7Twelve.
- In case of a purchase offer, please inform the buyer that you are currently committed to have your artwork on display for both the outside exhibit and the collective exhibit at Cultivate7Twelve, until the ending of November. However, we do not want you to miss out on a potential sell, so please be courteous to your writer and CTAC committee. Let’s have a discussion if the buyer can not wait until the end of the whole exhibiting period.
- All visual artwork will be professionally photographed for marketing and promoting of Central Texas Artist Collective events and exhibits going forward.
Writers, I am sorry, but it is about to get complicated:
- Writers are to send their finished pieces as a PDF attach to our email at centexartistcollective@gmail.com
- Subject line should read 2019 EKPHRASIS
- Send attachment as a PDF file, named as 2019 EK_writer’s name_title
- Example: 2019 EK_Jane Doe_Separation
- Final version should be no less than 18 point and 40 line limit; columns must be easily readable.
“Remember, the ekphrastic displays must be completed by September 15th. They will go up on the 2nd & 3rd of October. Just in time for First Friday.”
Steve Veracruz, CTAC’s Communication and Events Coordinator
Event Timeline, will be updated…
| Commitment to Participate | 2/25 through 3/25. entry fees accepted |
| Waco Walk | 4/28 Waco History 101 |
| CREATION PERIOD | 5/1 through 9/14 |
| Submission Deadline | 9/15 submit information via email |
| EK: VERACITY downtown | 10/2 & 3 set up in business storefronts |
| EK: VERACITY at Cultivate | 10/31 set up exhibit at Cultivate7Twelve |
| Exhibit closed | 11/23 make room for next exhibit |