Inspired by a "Style Challenge" I saw on the social media platform Instagram in which artists from around the world recreate other artists' works in their own style, I decided to do the same. I chose three different works, however two of them are by Van Gogh, the other is by Banksy. The first painting depicts sunflowers in different stages of life, with some wilting and some bright and alive, something that Van Gogh wanted to capture in a still-life monochrome painting. I chose this as the first work to replicate in my own style not only for that reason and not because I like the color yellow, but also because the name of the original painting is called "Sunflowers for Amy." Thus, for the painting I created in my style, I named "Sunflowers for Amy By Amy."

I thought I did a good job at replicating the original sunflowers' position and captured Van Gogh's ideas of the various stages of life well. For this piece, I also used the medium I thought would be easiest - oil pastels - instead of oil paints that Van Gogh used, nevertheless, it still created the same 3D- looking effect for the sunflower petals. Overall the first piece was a success and I continued with the second piece, which is a remake of Banksy's iconic pro-peace "Flower Thrower" graffiti. My version was painted on a locker. The final piece is also a Van Gogh piece - "Oleanders"- as I really enjoy his study on flowers and his use of colors. For this piece, I replaced the oleander flowers with a mix of tulips and poppies instead as they are my favorite flowers. I additionally added more vibrance and saturation to the piece and used bright orange, red, yellow, and purple colors for my flowers just to add a bit more of my vibrant personality into the piece. Overall, I really enjoyed this challenge as I have always enjoyed art but had never had enough time to start or finish artwork in my spare time and did not choose to take IB Art in fear of turning a beloved hobby into a chore (as well as fear of the workload). However, making art and enjoying the process made me realize that perhaps I made the wrong decision.

MODEL UNITED NATIONS (MUN)

1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively

6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

FOBISIAMUN

On the 9-11th of December, I chaired an MUN conference held at Harrow International School Bangkok. A handful of schools attended, including many from Malaysia, Vietnam, and more. As a chair, I facilitated discussion and made sure the delegates followed standard protocol in the WHO committee. To be an effective chair, one must be knowledgeable in the issues in one’s committee, and I believe that due to my knowledge from AP Biology class, my passionate about the Health and Sciences, and my previous achievement as best delegate at a BKKMUN the WHO committee, I was able to provide the delegates in my committee with the best experience and prior knowledge through the Chair Report that I worked collaboratively with Anushka from NIST throughout an entire week to complete. I learned that communication between chairs is important as we almost did not complete the report in time as we had opposing schedules and did not clearly establish the division of the workload. Nevertheless, we accomplished the task separately, but through better communication and work distribution.

The topics discussed in the room included antibiotic resistant pathogens, the question of universal access to vaccinations, and preventing the spread of waterborne diseases. Going into this conference, I was confident in my ability to chair due to my previous experiences and was enthusiastic to hear fruitful debate points among the delegates. The conference went smoothly and the delegates formed meaningful friendships towards the end of the day. However, some challenges included getting all delegates to participate as only a handful of the same delegates mostly spoke throughout the conference. Perhaps this is something I should improve on as a chair at MUN as interest and participation can be encouraged more.