Featuring young artists from the Grade 11 and Grade 12 International Baccalaureate Art classes at Saint John High School.
Featured artists in the Class of 2020 are: Marine Bramat, Emily Butler, Adam Chappel, Amy Cui, Jonah Dysart, Nataliia Fylypchuk, Aurora Hattie-Beyea, Camryn MacInnes, Gabrielle Maisonneuve, Kailyn Mask, Zainab Najm, Lacey Nickerson, Lydia Paterson, Julie Seaward, Riley Small, Bing Bing Wang, Chloe Whittaker, Paulina Wierzba, Lucy Wolfe.
Featured artists in the annual Grade 11 still life display are: Evin Ali, Ejub Balihodzic, MacKenzie Cameron, Devon Cao, Keziah Colas, Catherine Gary, Emily Gordon, Anja Hamberg, Olivia Irvin, Sydney Johnson, Jungyun Lee, Hye-Yoon Kang, Tritan Katambala, Megan Lee, Robyn Moore, Zeina Motawea, Erin O’Rourke, Adrian Smith, Tasha-Marie Speight, Alisha Young
I inspired myself by looking at the paintings of the artists that I am studying in my comparison study and tried to recreate the same calm and elegant atmosphere that is found in their art works.
While working on my art pieces, I wanted to stay focus on my Japanese theme, but explore it as well in multiple ways. I decided to represent the Japanese culture through its landscapes, traditions and beliefs, and strong and poetic cultural symbols. Throughout the year, I have tried to include as many details as possible in my paintings, but however to keep the painting in my own style and true to the original project.
Through my work, I have encountered many difficulties, and more specifically on how to finish my paintings. The ideas that I had at first did not fitted my theme anymore, or I was disappointed with my work. As a result of my indecisions, I ended up being late, and I had to work harder in order to follow the schedule. I had difficulties with the proportions of my clay piece because of the resource pictures which I had. Also, it was only the second time working with this type of material.
Through my artwork, I hope that people will see the diversity of the Japanese culture. Japan is most of the time described as a nation that is on top of the latest technologies, but it has however a very conservative and traditional side to it that makes its culture unique.
I grew up with a fond respect for nature and make an effort to spend as much time as I can within it. I wanted to capture its beauty within my artwork. The mediums used in my pieces were for the most part different for each piece, except for my acrylic paintings. I’m very much pleased with the pieces that I created for this show, each one has its own splendor and presence. I wanted my art to convey a sense of freedom and freshness, and I believe that I achieved that through my pieces.
The reason why I chose such an abstract and broad theme is because of how fascinating humans are. Much of the inspiration to follow a dark human theme was the saying “when you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you” by Friedrich Nietzsche; the more you analyze human nature, the more you discover yourself. Essentially, the theme I chose is a reflection of myself with each piece containing one element of my life.
The most difficult part of the process of creation of my pieces was to first come up with an idea for the piece. I was very limited on what I could do because of my art skills. As a result, many of my pieces were traditional drawings as it was what I was most accustomed to working with. I hope that those viewing my pieces will in someway relate to it or have a personal interpretation of it which will differ from another’s view of the piece.
While I am passionate about the body of work I’ve created this far, I know that I’m in a dynamic state, constantly developing, and always growing. I know that each piece I create is a combination of my experiences and my experimentation. As my knowledge develops, so too will my inspiration. In five years, my work will likely be very different than what it is today. My preferred medium is acrylic on paper or canvas, but I also use pencil, charcoal, and ink. I don’t limit my medium, style, or concept. I’m adventurous. I am thinking about how to develop original ideas and themes for my art. My work is a constant quest to evolve. I’m interested in not just the aesthetic value of my art; I want my art to promote thought and encourage discussion.
The mediums I have mostly used for this are acrylic paint on canvas; however, viewers of my work may find me sometimes differentiating with multi-media pieces as well as pencil. I believe that through my work one can see my journey of seeing my beautiful things and letting them change the way I perceive the world. I hope everyone finds mine and the other works pleasant and interesting to see.
I worked with mainly acrylic paint, and a bit of watercolour. The more pieces I made, the pickier I got, so the process was hard. I’d start something new, end up not liking it, and then spend another hour trying to find something that inspired me. Being a perfectionist was a curse through this. Looking back, I think if I could start all this again, I would want a solid plan for each piece rather than just winging it because by the end, I was frustrated with everything I did, and I was just burnt out.
For my first two landscape paintings, I wanted to show places that I frequently visited when I was a child while growing up in Saint John, NB. I used to visit my grandmother a lot during the holidays and some of my memories consist of spending time in her home. I wanted to illustrate her backyard to show what it looks like now in Sydney, NS.
Heritage was the most complex sculpture that I’ve ever done. Being a geographical depiction of Cape Breton Island, it took a lot longer to sculpt as I tried to make it accurate. Genealogy has been a big part of my life, and I wanted to show my Scottish and Acadian colours through Heritage by using the MacInnes and Matheson tartan patterns and the Acadian flag along with points to show where exactly my family lived or currently live.
The Celtic Fiddle was inspired by the Cape Breton folk songs that my mom introduced me to and the visits to “The Big Fiddle” in Sydney. I chose the colours of the Scottish and Nova Scotian flags to show where the Celtic traditions of Cape Breton originated from and where it has grown now.
My first art piece was a split image of a girl from the 1940’s and a skeleton. I wanted to show a difference in time between the two, to show how in the matter of 6 years of war a girl could go from being herself to not being at all. For my second piece I painted a girl within a garden of flowers, typically the girl would have been painted in colour while the rest of the painting was in black and white but I wanted to do something slightly different so I painter her (the main focus) in black and white and the flowers in colour. I did the same thing for my last painting. For the rest of my paintings I did them in black and white, and pen. For one I wanted to capture a moment that would have been very real in the Victorian age with two women talking amongst themselves in midday. For another I painted a girl holding a sword to justify her strength in a time when women were thought to be weak. And for the last one I painted a soldier from WW2, but again I wanted to do something different, and I burned the edges until it burned off the face of the soldier because I wanted that particular art piece to represent all the soldiers lost at war who were never able to be identified. The soldiers who are lost.
I wish for my audience to see my works as a reminder that it is well and good to create what you enjoy, for nobody other than yourself.
The view of sunrise and sunset helps to remove my stress and it makes me feel happy, whenever there is a happy beginning there is always happy ending. That relates to the reality that a lot of people have, they think there will not be an answer or a happy ending to the stresses and problems they get into, and that always make them be negative with all this happy reality.
I like to watch the sun shines on my face, I close my eyes and what I feel is like I’m walking on a very shiny bright road and the sun is in front shining on me & on the water in ground which makes it look like a shiny crystal water, that make me feel so happy and away from the reality. Seeing the shadows due to the sun, makes me feel relaxed and at ease. I thought it would make people feel the same if I introduce it as art piece.
I have mainly worked on a digital canvas this year, but have also done acrylic, pencil and coloured pencil – Although despite my preference for digital art I enjoyed every piece. My favourite artwork completed for this course is simply titled ‘Tiger Lilies’ and depicts a tiger prowling beside a pond which is surrounded by tiger lilies. It was done using coloured pencil as well as fine-liners and white gel pen.
My artistic process starts out with the idea, often coming to me through inspiration from things around me or other people’s artworks. Once I have my plan down pat, I begin to sketch small thumbnails, planning the composition and basic forms for my final draft. After I am satisfied, I do my final sketch before finally doing any line-art, colouring or shading! Of course, depending on the piece this process may slightly alter, but it generally follows these steps.
Over the last year in IB art, we have been pushed towards finding deeper meanings for our pieces and work within a particular theme of our choice. While being encouraged to improve and develop our skills as artists, discovering techniques, and experimenting with mediums unfamiliar to us. I struggled with deciding on a theme, because I wanted a broad topic that allowed me to have flexibility when choosing my pieces. I decided on “My life” as my theme, since it would allow me to express myself as an artist and continue producing art in a style that I enjoyed working with.
My favorite piece is called Maddy Murphy done in honor of my fellow teammate who suffered from a mental illness which she lost the battle to, and took her life. The painting is a mix of two colors purple and teal to represent the suicide prevention ribbon in support of Maddy Murphy and many others. The message I want people to take from all my paintings is that though it has a specific meaning to me in my life, it could convey a different meaning or memory to everyone else who views them.
The mediums I used also reflect the different meanings behind each piece, as they are varied depending on the subject. I used acrylic, watercolour, graphite, and wire, sometimes combining graphite and acrylic. My process consisted of firstly planning my medium, size, colour scheme, and meaning, then making the piece, and then finally writing a reflection on it. I feel as though my pieces represent different parts of my life, and show from where I draw my inspiration, creating a good understanding of how I see the world around me; my portraits range from my classmates who I see almost daily, to community figures and teachers. Overall, I am satisfied with my work and what it represents.
The idea for the piece of “The mermaid’’ comes from nineteen century’s oil painting “Ophelia” by Johan Everett Millais. Ophelia’s story is famous, because of her unusual death. She fell into the water and died quietly. This painting shows “sadness is not greater than heart death.” through large area of dark green create a sad atmosphere. My painting uses large area of light color to show peace and beauty of life.
My sculpture’s name is “struggle”. Everyone on this planet fight with their life for success, even though life is hard. The up hands represent a new plant and the tangled lines are the difficulties of life. The plant is firmly sprouting from dirt although there are many obstacles.
In the photographs “Rainy night of Saint John”, the orange, red and blue lights in the heavy rain mixes with wind and became countless flowing spots which shows a different colorful life of Saint John.
The piece of “Time” is mainly painted with watercolor. It has a lot of objects which have to do with time, like clock, and gears. I imagined that the female figure in the painting is the goddess in charge of time. A large number of circles in the figure are intended to express the flowing of time. The background is rich in color and represents the universe. The time is like meteors and goes forever in the universe. The background uses a lot of gold, silver and color glitter besides watercolor. I also added a little salt to get a rough effect.
In my artworks I was inspired by Frida Kahlo and Artemisia Gentileschi and their works. Like them I wanted to show that woman means more than beautiful curvy body but can also be seductive and dangerous. I wanted to show women from different cultures, eras and with different backgrounds to emphasis that all woman can be strong and powerful.
With clay, I made a statue of the female body of a woman from ancient times. The process of making woman’s body out of the clay was the hardest and richest experience. Shaping the female curves was a challenge for me. Unfortunately, the statue is not as smooth as I first intended it to be, but it gives nice texture and after painting over it gives nice impression of the statue being old.
Through the shaped of the body I wanted to show the seductive power of women and connect it to the idea of the powerful goddesses. My drawing of “Cleopatra” using colour pencils was a symbol of ambition and success. The drawing depicts that woman can be more devious than men.
I also did some paintings that were showing part of my Polish culture. I did a Folk dancer and the Polish-French Noblest Maria Skłodowska-Curie, brilliant chemist. Besides being part of my theme, I also want to show part of my identity.
In my artworks I hope to convey the theme of “Strong Woman” through their bodies, personas, symbols they are associated with, and greatness of the woman that I depict in my works.
125 Geisha; Intellectual Entertainer
Often the first step to my process is to find a reference picture to base my piece of, then start forming the piece. My first piece of a bird overlooking the moon is quite simple, but the simple ness lets the focus be brought to the bird and the moon. My second piece of the Blue Jay is probably my favourite, it combines snow which I love and birds which I like. The snow detail is really important to the scene. My third piece the warbler is my digital art piece that really focuses on the bird which is great as the main part is clearly shown. My fourth piece the thundering night gives 3D trees and thunder clouds. The piece is made of only black and whites. My fifth piece of a penguin focuses on the penguin in the lonely landscape, the focus on the main point is great for the simplicity.