Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Buffalow.
Hi Sydney, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m Sydney Buffalow, but most people know me as Cr8tion Rebel. I’m a multimedia artist, educator, and founder of the Get Free, Be Free movement. I live and work in Washington, DC, where I’m all about creating art that’s about transformation, freedom, and honoring the stories we carry — especially the ones about womanhood, motherhood, and rebirth.
I graduated from the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and over the years, I’ve built my practice around blending sculpture, ceramics, textiles, and digital collage. I’m big on sustainability too — I love taking discarded things like furniture, old magazines, recycled plastic, and giving them new life. I believe that in every scrap, every broken thing, there’s still beauty and potential. That belief is at the heart of everything I create.
My work, especially my MOON MAMA series, is about tapping into ancestral energy, weaving African wax fabrics and vintage family photos into digital stories that feel like home, like memory, like the future.
With Get Free, Be Free, I took that energy off the canvas and into the community. I’m building a mobile arts program that brings creativity straight to seniors and kids — meeting people right where they are, and giving them a chance to express themselves freely, without judgment or barriers.
You might have seen my murals around the city — at the NoMa Mural Festival, Art All Night DC, Riggs Park, and even wrapped around traffic control boxes. My digital collages and animations were featured across five DC Metro stations as part of Cultural DC’s TORRENTS: New Links to Black Futures project. Wherever my art lives — walls, streets, buses, community centers — it’s about making space for people to see themselves, dream bigger, and feel free.
When I’m not making or installing work, I’m teaching — from preschoolers to seniors — showing people that their creativity is valid, powerful, and necessary. Whether it’s at The Hill Preschool, the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, or a pop-up event at a coffee shop, I stay rooted in my mission: to create, to connect, and to help people get free and be free — through art.
Art isn’t just something I do — it’s how I move through the world. It’s how I heal, how I rebel, and how I build bridges. And I’m just getting started!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I started really pursuing being a full-time artist after my son graduated from high school. For a long time, I was a single mom, working as a design patent examiner, a teacher, and doing whatever I needed to do to keep the lights on. Art was always in my heart, but it had to live in the margins — squeezed in after work, after homework, after life.
Balancing creating time with paying the bills was one of the hardest parts. Finding work that left me with enough energy and mental space to actually make art felt almost impossible some days. Teaching gave me some flexibility, but it also drained a lot of my creative energy because I was giving so much to my students. Being a patent examiner was steady, but it was rigid and left very little room for creativity.
It took a long time — years of putting one foot in front of the other — to finally reach a place where I could say, this is it, I’m doing my art full-time. Letting go of the steady paycheck was scary. Still is sometimes. But getting free — really free — meant betting on myself and building a life where creating isn’t an afterthought, it’s the priority.
I’m proud that I made it here, even with all the twists, sacrifices, and late nights along the way. My journey wasn’t easy, but it made me stronger, more resourceful, and even more committed to making art that honors all the people who don’t always get to put their dreams first.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a multimedia artist, educator, and creative instigator known as Cr8tion Rebel. My work spans sculpture, ceramics, textiles, digital collage, public art, and community-based installations — all rooted in storytelling, sustainability, and personal liberation. I specialize in turning discarded and everyday materials into powerful visual narratives — whether that’s through murals, functional sculptures, or layered digital collages that celebrate ancestry, womanhood, rebirth, and transformation.
I’m most proud of the moment my digital collages and animations were featured across five DC Metro stations through Cultural DC’s TORRENTS: New Links to Black Futures project. Seeing my work move through the city — in spaces where everyday people could experience it — felt like the most honest extension of why I create. I’m also proud of my MOON MAMA series, where I weave African wax fabric and vintage family photos into celestial, healing digital landscapes. And then there’s my Get Free, Be Free mobile arts studio — a project that brings creativity straight to communities, offering workshops for children and seniors who might not otherwise have access to arts programming.
What sets me apart is how I show up. I’m not just making art for gallery walls — I’m building community, reimagining waste, and creating work that invites people to feel free. As a single mother, former design patent examiner, and longtime teaching artist, I’ve lived many lives — and I bring all that to my work. Once my son graduated high school, I went all in as a full-time artist. That leap wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.
Everything I make is layered — with memory, intention, and care. I believe art should be accessible, interactive, and healing. Whether I’m painting murals, collaging family archives, or helping a child splatter paint during a workshop, I’m always asking the same question: how can we create space to be free?
What were you like growing up?
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember — even before I had the language to call myself one. As a child, I was quiet, curious, and always creating. I could lose myself for hours in scissors, glue, and old National Geographic magazines. I saw beauty in discarded things — cardboard, fabric scraps, broken furniture — and I’d transform them into something meaningful, even magical. Art was my first language, my safe space, my way of making sense of the world.
I grew up with a strong sense of justice and a rebellious heart. I questioned what didn’t feel fair, I cared deeply for people around me, and I wanted everyone — especially kids and elders — to feel seen, included, and heard. That energy has stayed with me. It’s in everything I do.
Before I became a full-time artist, I wore many hats: I was a single mom, a design patent examiner, a teacher, a caregiver, a provider. My art lived in the margins — between shifts, after school pickups, late nights, and early mornings. Once my son graduated high school, I finally gave myself permission to go all in, full time, and build a life centered on creation, connection, and freedom.
Now, I create bold, layered work that honors memory, ancestry, femininity, and rebirth. My MOON MAMA series mixes African wax fabrics with vintage family photos, creating digital dreamscapes rooted in healing and power. My murals and sculptures are made with salvaged materials — a reflection of my belief that nothing, and no one, is ever too far gone to become something beautiful again.
One of my proudest moments was seeing my digital collages and animations featured across five DC Metro stations as part of Cultural DC’s TORRENTS project. It felt like a full-circle moment — for that little girl who used to collage in her bedroom, for the mother who held it all together, and for the artist who finally got free.
Today, through my mobile arts initiative Get Free, Be Free, I bring that freedom to others — offering hands-on workshops for kids and seniors, and building spaces where everyone has permission to express, explore, and exist fully.
My story isn’t just about art — it’s about liberation. And I’m still creating it, every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Cr8tionrebel.com
- Instagram: @cr8tionrebel
- Twitter: @cr8tionrebel
