VISUAL ARTS
MRS JULIA WARE
The 2021 Year 12 Visual Arts class are an eclectic group of individuals filled with creativity, imagination and lots of humour. I have had the joy of teaching many of these students from Year 7; it has been a privilege to watch them grow and mature into young adults, as well as to watch their creative skills and passions develop in Visual Arts. I will dearly miss each and every one as they move on to pursue the big, bright future ahead of them. Congratulations, Class of 2021!
ISABELLA CRAIG
Memini Vita Pulchra (Remember Life is Beautiful)
The main concept of my artwork was to contrast the beauty of life to the darkness and ominous inevitability of death. My artwork displays different animal skulls surrounded by plants, flowers, and insects which somewhat depict a stage of decomposition. The flowers and insects were drawn in coloured pencils in order to highlight the beauty and life in these things surrounding the skulls. Then a mixture of graphite and charcoal was used on the skulls and parts of the background and environment, to take up the majority of the work and almost consume and overpower the colour of the artwork with the darkness of this medium, emphasizing the inevitability of death. I have to an extent, been inspired by vanitas artworks, liking the darkness but also some of the beauty that exists in the style and the symbolism surrounding the transience of life. Instead of incorporating objects of vanity and other earthly things, I replaced this with more natural subjects of the environment like more plants and flowers, and then the animal skulls as opposed to human ones.
SARAH DAY
Fine Line
This artwork is a piece created using acrylic paint on wooden boards. I chose the title fine line as there is only a fine line between people being born with down syndrome and not being born with it as the only difference is one extra chromosome and it can happen to anyone. This artwork is supposed to explore the idea that people with disabilities have many more challenges and hurdles in life than others but are still able to do many of the things that everyone else can do whilst people judge them and use derogatory terms about them my artwork is deliberately shaped to look like an eye to represent looking into someone's life and to show how drastic a life change and how different it can look which is all depended on the fine line of fate. This artwork has been created to shed light and open conversation on a topic that is not usually talked about or discussed openly, having a sister with down syndrome has led to me being more open-minded about disabilities which not everyone gets the hands-on experience of which is where the misconception of limited abilities comes from within people outside of the community.
GRACE EDWORTHY
Women Can Be Heroes Too
The concept of my three artworks is to outline the image that society puts in our heads, it’s not just men who can be superheroes. These images are aimed mostly at children, as they are more inclined to think that heroes are only strong men. This artwork also was aimed to get people to realise that it’s not just the people in movies and comic books that are classified as superheroes. There are superheroes in our everyday lives like our parents, teachers, or someone that we look up to. I believe that even though our society is getting better at equalising men and women, there is still that fine line where men are seen as stronger, faster and more superhero-like. So, I wanted to create the image in people's minds where they see women on the same scale as men, equal.
This artwork is also to thank the women in my life for being my heroes.
HOLLIE FISK
Spiritual Awakening
My artwork, entitled ‘Spiritual Awakening’, consists of the imagery of butterflies and detailed mandalas. The materials and mediums I have used are canvas, with pencil, permanent marker and acrylic paints. I chose these because it’s personally what I work best with, and to me, allows the details of the mandalas and butterflies to stand out more and be more flamboyant. The mandalas stay the black and white, with the butterflies being the centrepieces in vibrant colours of blue, pink, orange and green. Inspiration and influence of my art-making are the mandalas have always been a passion of mine, I do random ones daily, so I wanted to incorporate that skill set into my major work. Indian art is also an inspiration and influence as it shows life, and growth, and how it can be expressed, and also the detailing of their mandalas, how all are different and unique. The butterflies demonstrate a life source and the blossoming of that creature.
AMELIA JACKSON
This Is; Society
My artworks are strongly influenced by the struggling injustices that society faces every single day without acknowledgment. My artworks visualise uncultured ideas and society’s concepts that we believe we must obey. These artworks were strongly influenced by current worldwide problems that I believe can be fixed if we all do our part. Toxic masculinity is the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is normalised, and emotions are a weakness. This phrase is designed to not describe masculinity, itself, but a form of gendered behaviour that results in what expectations of “what it means to be a man” go wrong. The Black Lives Matter movement is the idea that all races are equal and should be treated with freedom and respect. This movement was heavily publicised after white police brutality was raised against coloured individuals around the world. Beauty standards is the reflection of the way we believe individuals must look depending on society’s expectations, this is also determined by gender. This is creating a culture of insecurities. Materials used in the art-making process were acrylic paints, spray paint, magazines and props. I believe these materials fit uniquely with the concept and display what is being portrayed in a meaningful manner. This was achieved by applying appropriate colours and textures to the canvas.
MADDISON MCCARTHY
All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go
The concept behind the piece and the title ‘All dressed up and nowhere to go’ is about how one in six women have experienced sexual assault since the age of 15. Sexual assault is commonly linked to the way women are dressed which leads women to feel too scared to get dressed up because they have nowhere safe to go.
The dress has been made out of white satin because white traditionally represents innocents and purity as well as the smooth glossy look to convey a sense of calmness. I also used red embroidery thread to represent the chaos going on underneath. The dress was made using a combination of hand and machine sewing. This piece has been influenced by the charity organisation I work for and all the women they support.