What made you choose the theme ‘Personality’?
I really like it when my art is an extension of myself and whatever I make, I want it to be related to me because that way it’s a lot easier for me to explore the concept and think of different aspects. It’s also more inspiring when it’s something that relates to me. In this case, using ‘Personality’ has really helped me come up with pieces and each of them is an aspect of me and knowing that I am presenting a part of me to the world has motivated me a lot because I want people to see the good things I can do and the good person I can be.
Do you have a favourite piece? Which one and why?
I have a few favourite pieces. It’s hard to choose because all of them mean something different to me. I really like ‘Conspiracy’ because I spent so much time on it and I’m really happy with how it turned out but I also really like ‘Life’ because it has a very personal connection in the sense that Hundertwasser was one of my grandma’s favourite artists. So it’s related to her and to me and I also spent a lot of time on it. But one of my absolute favourite ones is ‘Sunset over Ascona’, it’s an oil painting of a sunset over a lake and it’s a very personal piece to me because I created it when I was going through a stressful period and instead of channeling my negative thoughts and emotions at the time into something dark, I wanted to created something beautiful. Not only to make myself feel better in the moment but also to have the outcome be something beautiful so that if the viewer is going through a rough time, they can see this and be reminded that they should have a good time and self reflect on what is stressing them and how they can fix it.
Would you recommend the DP Visual Arts course to students entering the Diploma course?
Yes.
Is there any advice you would give them?
Make time. If you decide to do higher level (HL), you have do a comparative study in which you compare 3 artists and 3 art works from different time periods and different cultures and you also have to compare it to yourself. I created 2 pieces that I could compare in my study last summer but I still haven’t properly finished it and it’s very stressful. So top priority is time management; make sure that you can manage your time properly because without the COVID adaptions you have to make about 10 pieces which is alot. I barely got 8 pieces done even though we were in lockdown. It’s really hard and very time consuming but I am very grateful that I did it. I love doing art, it’s very reflective way to wind-down and another perk is that you don’t have to write 6 exams!