She began a psychology degree, at Austin Community College, which led her to Zendik Farm. She went to Zendik to write a sociology paper and ended up quitting school and moving in for 3 years. She became a successful, well-traveled fire dancer. She also birthed a unique shadow puppetry theater which became a playground for her interior archetypes to have a limb of which to express themselves in thi
s manifest reality. But alas, after a long journey of performance art and communal living, she became tuckered out, and desperately needed a creative outlet that was not as physically demanding. Baru began a phase of her life that she refers to as "sewing for my sanity". She was hanging by a thread, but she took that thread and sewed a lifeline. Sewing became Baru’s therapy, her zen, her transportation to higher self and the processing of deep issues through artistic creation. This became her path to Gnosis. She spent 4 years (2010-2013) sewing up to 18 hours a day for 360 days a year of those 4 years. She not only had a lot of sanity to stitch back together, but realized that Creativity is her Ministry. Baru says “What does God do? God makes stuff. I am closest to The Source when in the creative zone. It IS the blood of my soul. This is not a hobby, this IS life. My life.”
Sewing became her "hyper" focus. Moving all other creative outlets to the back burner. Even though she has always done some small level of sewing, she is self-taught, and has never had any sewing instruction. Her grandmothers and aunt are seamstresses. She believes that it is in her DNA, and that her intuition is what accesses this latent skill. She can easily visualize what she wants to create and then begin the process of figuring out how to bring it to life. She makes patterns out of old discarded sheets. Being a poor struggling artisan that could not afford new uncut fabric in large yardage, she began what she calls "deconstruction and resurrection". Baru began collecting any free unwanted clothes, t-shirts and sheets that she could get her hands on, cutting and deconstructing them into completely new and different garments. Baru discovered that old t-shirts can become a dress, or pants, or cut into strips for macrame. This laid the foundation for mher"T-shirt Sergeries", which have become a popular item of her clothing line. Sculpting fabric into wearable art became Baruzula’s life's mantra. ArtOutside was homegrown on a property that Baru lived communally upon, the Austin Enchanted Forest. She has been able to show her original designs at the ongoing festival, Artoutside, for years, often selling completely out of most items. She then must "rebuild the mountain" after each venture. Since she is her only employee, she must, and does, maintain a high level of productivity and commitment for her "style factory" to continue churning out her bold and unique brand of functional art wear. The Austin Bike Zoo gave Baru a new challenge that reached beyond making clothes, and into actual fabric sculpting. The creatures are big and shapely. She successfully built for Bike Zoo, Snake Head Coverings and Big Butterfly Wings. The Giant Bike Zoo’s Snake Head covering has 9 panels of fabric. Buru, with her thousands of hours of practice exploring fabric shapes sewn together, was able to accomplish that which has stumped other seamstresses. For the snake's head she fashioned a pattern by taping newspapers together to cut out the different panels that configure the giant head. Her confidence does not fear cutting into a big new piece of virginal fabric.
