What is Your Art?: Interviews with Passionate Students and Art Teachers
What is your art?
I mainly focus on traditional mediums such as painting and drawing, and I love to experiment with different colours! From oil pastels to watercolour to a simple vine charcoal twig, these mediums let me create images that blossom into little stories intertwined within.
What does it mean to you?
Art is a very wispy concept to define. It stretches and thins out, then it bursts into colours and swirls, beckoning you to come closer. I think art can be used as a medium to channel joy. Whether it be creating joy or spreading joy; art can be seen as a way to express your thoughts and emotions directly. As the saying goes, an image speaks a thousand words, and I believe that art can be used as a communicator when words can’t get through. It’s something very powerful that can bring together people in a very unique way.
If you had 1 pound of clay and any tools you’d like, what would you make?
Every time anyone asks me the question: What should I draw? My immediate answer would be, “A cat!” Now I’m going to take my own advice and say, “A cat!” This cat wouldn’t be alone of course. No, it would be surrounded with it’s own little family of kittens, playing around, purring with their little clay mouths and whiskers. In the background, there’s a little cottage cat house with a thick thatched hay roof, and that’s their home! Now, mother cat would be sculpted in a way where you can see— no feel, the fluffiness of the fur. And since this is an independent mother cat, it doesn’t need a collar, it has freedom. Staring at you with big adoring eyes, she looks as if she’s saying, “Look at my children, look at my home, isn’t it wonderful?” And you would smile and say, “Yes mother cat, yes it is.”
How do you think art can benefit or uplift a community? Have you been empowered by art?
Personally, art has helped me discover myself in ways I, perhaps, never would have otherwise. It can be viewed in a way where art can be therapeutic. It can help you vent away all the stress and anger and emotions into the brush strokes— graphite marks, you name it, and lose your mind working away, focusing on nothing but the materials and blank canvas in front of you. Many self discoveries have been made looking at art too, whether it be reflecting on a past piece or even thinking about future ideas, these thoughts have led me to realize problems in myself, my perception of self and values I didn’t think I cared about. Past trauma if you will. That deep gross darkness can come spilling out onto this white paper if you aren’t careful you know. But that can also be turned in a way where people can take advantage of this, and instead of venting in unhealthy ways, rather, create something beautiful with these toxic emotions. Plus, it doesn’t have to be only negative emotions. Happiness, sadness, everything can be channeled into a piece; a piece that means something to both yourself and the onlookers who view your art. In these ways, I believe art can bring together and even create a community; a space where we can all express ourselves to the best of our abilities.
Written Responses by Angel Ye — Art Student
