VCA2025

When I create, I like to think about what inspires me. I enjoy drawing people, especially women, in my work, as I see myself and qualities I admire and aspire to in many women I draw. I also like to base my artwork on my strongest feelings, be that optimism, sadness, or hope for the future. As well, my work is usually not centered in realism, as I use more figurative ways of drawing and painting to portray my ideas creatively. In addition, I am inspired by locations that are meaningful to me, which leads me to what this painting is all about. My place painting titled “Beside You” is based on my first trip to Vancouver back in 2019. I went to explore the city and see my favourite band play their hometown show, and that trip also marked my first flight. Being so far from home in this breathtaking city, existing between the beautiful balance of urban and natural elements made me feel the most happy and at peace I have ever been. Vancouver feels like a second home to me and whenever I get the chance to go back, I eagerly take it. Based on my favourite photo taken in Vancouver, this painting embodies the feelings of happiness and peace that I get whenever I visit this city. My use of vibrant colours is reminiscent of the psychedelic art of the 60’s and is meant to represent vibrant concert lights as well as the positive and peaceful sense I feel when I visit or think of Vancouver.

When I create, I like to think about what inspires me. I enjoy drawing people, especially women, in my work, as I see myself and qualities I admire and aspire to in many women I draw. I also like to base my artwork on my strongest feelings, be that optimism, sadness, or hope for the future. As well, my work is usually not centered in realism, as I use more figurative ways of drawing and painting to portray my ideas creatively. In addition, I am inspired by locations that are meaningful to me, which leads me to what this painting is all about. My place painting titled “Beside You” is based on my first trip to Vancouver back in 2019. I went to explore the city and see my favourite band play their hometown show, and that trip also marked my first flight. Being so far from home in this breathtaking city, existing between the beautiful balance of urban and natural elements made me feel the most happy and at peace I have ever been. Vancouver feels like a second home to me and whenever I get the chance to go back, I eagerly take it. Based on my favourite photo taken in Vancouver, this painting embodies the feelings of happiness and peace that I get whenever I visit this city. My use of vibrant colours is reminiscent of the psychedelic art of the 60’s and is meant to represent vibrant concert lights as well as the positive and peaceful sense I feel when I visit or think of Vancouver.

For this project, I used an inverted colour palette by painting the proper tones and shades of the body, but in the colour scheme of the bisexual pride flag (pink, purple, and blue). My painting embodies the freedom and confidence of exploring one’s sexuality in a very free-spirited design.

For my landscape painting, I explored the painting style of Claude Monet and his use of subjective colour to portray a landscape at sunset hours when the lighting emits a pink or orange hue. I’ve always admired Monet’s use of subjective colour in his landscapes, most of all his paintings of the Notre Dame cathedral during different times of day. I would like to capture this same style but featuring a Canadian landscape, building, or monument to represent where I’m from much as Monet did with French landscapes and architecture.

I’ve always been fascinated with the world of animation. A realm where drawings come to life and anything from your wildest dreams can happen! To be able to cross over into the animated world would be incredible: a real escape into one’s fantasies when the real world can be too overwhelming. Most people use the fictional world as an escape, but to actually be able to be transported into a cartoon world would just be beyond amazing! My piece is composed with the image of myself and the room behind me being the only “real world” objects in this scene. The rest of the composition is made up of 2D cartoon objects. The story of my image is based on the question “What if you could enter the animated world?” Imagine if you were just sitting at home and a portal opened up before you, allowing you to enter and explore a cartoon world! I gave myself a face of wonderment as I look upon the drawn world, interacting with the portal and a butterfly in the piece. I wanted to make the cartoon world one style of drawing, almost as if to say this is only one of the many fictional worlds the portal could lead you to and that in the animated world there are truly endless possibilities!

For my independent painting, created the figure of a nude woman that portrays a woman’s sexual positivity as well as need for vulnerability. This is a theme I enjoy exploring in my work from time to time as it means a lot to me as a woman to portray us as more than just sexual objects for the male gaze. I want to create a work that expresses a woman’s desire to explore her sexuality, involving one’s need for control and contrarily one’s desire to let go and be vulnerable.

Something I’ve lost… the part of my childhood where I should have been more carefree. Instead, I was forced to grow up faster than I should have. What I thought of as a normal home life was actually not. My surroundings made me mature faster, leaving behind childish things in my early teens and being ashamed of them. What I want to find… my inner child in order to heal. I find that in my young adulthood, I have been drawn to more childish things: toys, animation, dressing up in costume… I find myself trying to live the part of the childhood that was taken from me and desire to feel that freedom again. My loop communicates the thoughts and feelings I’ve felt between my youth and now. I have used monochromatic colours to convey certain emotions within my loop, pink being happiness, orange being anxiety, blue being melancholy, green being shame, and purple being fear and stress. I wanted to convey that much like this loop, thinking about one’s past is something that is continuous. I am often reflecting on things from my past, both the good and the bad. Although some things are hard to think about, it can still be nice to look back and think of simpler times and when they were good. I want this loop to communicate the good times as my inner child, showing my need to get back to her when things in my life get tough.

For my independent figure painting project, I explored body autonomy and self care for women in today’s society. I was inspired to create a piece like this after viewing a Rembrandt painting titled Bathsheba, which depicts a young woman named Bathsheba being bathed. I admired the self care aspect of this piece, as well as the fact that the woman’s body is her own: not held to impossible beauty standards, just portraying natural beauty. I wanted to paint a modern Bathsheba in a whimsical, watercolour paint style which borders between reality and a dream state, showing the serene beauty of self care and body positivity.

My intermedia hybrid piece is based on a video I took on my phone of the lead singer of Marianas Trench, Josh Ramsay, grabbing my phone and taking it on stage with him as he sang during the show. The frames convey a fun and vibrant concert experience, which is what I wanted to showcase in my rotoscope. For this piece, I intended to express the feelings one has while attending a concert, such feelings being fun, admiration, and excitement. Using my pencil sketches for the basis of the figure, I was able to create a sense of movement throughout the work, incorporating bold doodles to express how an audience member would be feeling as they watched the show.

My diptych explores the ideas of identity and place in my life by showcasing my inner child and the woman I want to become. There are still parts of my current identity that can be linked back to my childhood creativity and interests, one being my love of dressing up. The work on the left side of my diptych showcases my undying love of playing a character, the background scenery being the first convention where I had the confidence to fully dress up. The work to the right dives into my inner thoughts and fantasies, exploring my inner child, who I was in the past, and the person I wish to become. I feel that I am all of these people, even as I grow and change. My past has made me the woman I am today and made me long to become even more in the future.