Joséphine Bidoli

Visual Arts Department

Nomad

2020

Oil paint on wood

28" x 23"

My senior piece went in a completely different direction than I had intended, truthfully. It started out as a standard portrait but, quite impulsively, became more abstracted as I went along.

I wish this piece had meaning, which might be an odd thing to say, but I couldn’t find any inspiration for a deeper meaning in this piece whilst planning it out or executing it that didn’t feel cliche. I’ve hit all the criteria of hidden meaning in my artwork before, from topics as common as heart break to representing my identity in my pieces-- it feels like i’ve done it all, so with this piece, it was honestly really refreshing to not worry about how I can properly display a meaning without explicitly saying “this painting is about xyz”. It’s nice to say that this painting is simply a portrait, nothing more to it — just an abstract portrait. The brushstrokes and layered on, almost impasto-esk application of the white paint gives a look of a mask covering my face, which is practically begging for a hidden meaning. In that way, the viewer is being forced to put their own interpretation into the ambiguity of my painting, and I really like the idea of people observing my art and their mind jogging to figure it out.

Dear Class of 2020,

These past four years have been some of the greatest (and most stressful) times of my life. I've created memories that I'll never, ever forget, and I want to thank everyone who went through this journey alongside me.

It's super surreal to think that in just a few months we'll be walking around a college campus, once again asking what building our classes are in. Some of you I've known since I was eleven, when we were just starting our time as a fine arts student at Bak MSOA (though I'd like to forget the entirety of middle school, honestly). Through the good and the bad, we've all grown to become a class that I'm truly proud of, and god, am I going to miss you all.

I wish I could say goodbye in person rather than face a screen and type my thoughts away, but that just isn't the case. So, again, thank you for the memories.

See y'all at our reunion.

Until then,

Josèphine Bidoli

Spirit Week!

New York, baby

The self-proclaimed Quartet (the best people I know)

DEAR CLASS OF 2021

First of all, cherish the fact that you have graduation, prom, and all your senior activities, because I'm incredibly jealous.

Your first semester of senior year is most likely going to be stressful, so I truly believe that not procrastinating on college applications and starting them early will save you from a lot of anxiety-filled all-nighters trying to figure out what trauma you’re going to write your college essay on. Do. Not. Procrastinate. It’ll save you. Your teachers know how hard of a time this is and they should be there to support you. Reach out to not only teachers, but to your friends and family to proof-read your essay, and guidance is always across campus to help out! If you’re feeling overwhelmed between your in-class workload and college applications, seriously communicate to your teachers, it saved a good amount of my grades. I also recommend going to the College representative presentations that they hold in the media center -- they really helped me organize my values when deciding what colleges I was really passionate about.

Make sure to set aside some time for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with taking a saturday off to destress and play some video games, because, as unproductive as it may feel at times, you need to know when and how to balance your workload and leisure time.

My final piece of advice is to think about your senior piece early on. I didn’t put too much thought into mine until about two months prior to when it was assigned, and I came up with something that didn’t feel very inspired or “grand” enough to be a senior piece. That being said, you don’t have to take your art seriously if you don’t want to-- your art is what you make of it, and if you want your senior piece to just be fun to make rather than, say, a display of technical skills, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that either. Art is unique to everyone who creates it, so don’t be hard on yourself just because you feel like your work isn’t good enough compared to x student or x painting.

Stay optimistic. Your senior year pep rally is the catalyst for a fun rest of the school year, so make the most of it.

Good luck!

Josephine Bidoli.

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