"A cut here, a slash there, now I live in such despair!"
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Unlimited Creative Corporations by Ruby N. Lewis Trafford Publishing
book review by J A Garcia
This collection of works of art, essays, poems, and stories is as varied as it is passionate. Lewis, a self-described United States orphan and artist, lived in the custody of social services for six years. During this time, she experienced both physical and emotional abuse. Throughout this collection, her pain, anger, and regret are all palpable. "Something Is Missing," a three-dimensional sculpture comprised of paint, Barbie dolls, yarn, and nails, depicts women as victims and martyrs, their mouths gagged and their bodies strung over severed hands. Meanwhile, a series of short stories titled "United States Orphans" follows the lives of several orphaned young women as they overcome their violent and abusive childhoods to achieve success through the arts. Several poems and essays reveal similar themes in which women struggle to overcome past abuses. Still, there are other pieces that break away from this theme to explore other issues, such as race in the chapter, "PDDBM: Please Don't Die Black Men," among others.
Most compelling are Lewis's autobiographical pieces, which reveal a woman struggling to transcend her past through creative expression, much like the characters in "United States Orphans: The Series." Other pieces interspersed throughout the collection pale in comparison, particularly essays, poems, and graphics that seem to have been produced in response to college course assignments. The result is a collection that is at times scattered and bewildering, but unlimited in a sense.