AP

"My main focus was portraits, people, & social media. People my age tend to take pictures of themselves with fake smiles, filters & such to make themselves look a certain way. I wanted to expose what people are really like behind those selfies. So I interviewed each of my subjects to get a feel of who they are, what they struggle with in life (mentally, emotionally, & physically), their relationships, their self esteem, just anything that would show their true selves. With what I gathered doing that, I then used colors to demonstrate their moods, their behaviors, & feelings."

"This year, I decided to explore not only new techniques, but also more complex concepts. I wanted to compare and contrast two ideas into a single work. I took more liberties in making each piece, so they're not cohesive. Each being open and ambiguous was a major key factor in exploring the ideas."

"My pieces are centered around the effect of body image on a person. I highlighted the mental and physical struggles that one experiences in my series of paintings."

"My work is centered around my struggle with identity and self-love. I’ve spent a lot of time mourning my lost childhood. Growing up with multiple identities and labels is confusing and complicated. I didn’t know who I was and I didn’t love myself. I constantly felt trapped in my own mind, overthinking all the small details, but thinking about nothing at the same time. These clashing and complex feelings manifest themselves in my work."

"My work is centered around the investigation of childhood memories and how we view them. In my work, I tried to capture a child-like style or lens by using simple shapes, bright colors and patterns. I also attempted to focus on how as moments become more distant, they become less clear in our memory. I experimented with this by using white paint and pieces of white paper to represent gaps in our memory."

"I explored bad habits and why people have them, then dove deeper into how these bad habits directly correlate with the way society pushes people to think and behave. Many bad habits are formed in reaction to the way society pushes people to act and look a certain way. I also investigated some of my personal bad habits using materials like pastel, clay, wire, and watercolor which were all pretty new to me."

"My pieces focus on perspective and posing to convey meaning and emotion."

"My sustained investigation originally focused on how acne affected my low self-esteem. I explored different ideas regarding the way I viewed myself with and after acne. However, I realized at some point in my journey I was sorry I had hurt myself emotionally and wanted to ask for forgiveness. This new idea led me to change my sustained investigation to focus on a journey of self-love and progression. In my later pieces, I allowed myself to explore a new medium, digital art, to focus on my healing journey."