Interview with the Artists

Two Grade 12 students interviewed the DP2 Art Students about their exhibitions:

Paula

What made you choose the theme ‘Influences’?

I thought it would be something where I can explore my identity and the cultural influences on me and other people as well as societal and personal influences.

Do you have a favourite piece? Which one and why? 

Yes, my photography piece. There’s a lot of dedication that went into it; I would get up at 6 in the morning to get these photos just so that the flower could be open and the lighting was right over the pond. But I also really like my Carl Rohrig piece because it was really fun working with him while making it and it was a very personal and exciting experience.

Would you recommend the DP Visual Arts course to students entering the Diploma course? 

Yes, if you really like art. It is a challenging course and I think that you have to really love art to be able to enjoy it because it’s a lot of work.

Is there any advice you would give them?

Choose an open theme that you can explore a lot. I found that with my theme I was able to explore and discover things about myself and also about cultures that I hadn’t known before and now it’s something that I can take a lot of pride in and it allowed me to show a lot of what I learnt through the course.

Pia

What made you choose the theme ‘Personality’?

I really like it when my art is an extension of myself and whatever I make, I want it to be related to me because that way it’s a lot easier for me to explore the concept and think of different aspects. It’s also more inspiring when it’s something that relates to me. In this case, using ‘Personality’ has really helped me come up with pieces and each of them is an aspect of me and knowing that I am presenting a part of me to the world has motivated me a lot because I want people to see the good things I can do and the good person I can be.

Do you have a favourite piece? Which one and why? 

I have a few favourite pieces. It’s hard to choose because all of them mean something different to me. I really like ‘Conspiracy’ because I spent so much time on it and I’m really happy with how it turned out but I also really like ‘Life’ because it has a very personal connection in the sense that Hundertwasser was one of my grandma’s favourite artists. So it’s related to her and to me and I also spent a lot of time on it. But one of my absolute favourite ones is ‘Sunset over Ascona’, it’s an oil painting of a sunset over a lake and it’s a very personal piece to me because I created it when I was going through a stressful period and instead of channeling my negative thoughts and emotions at the time into something dark, I wanted to created something beautiful. Not only to make myself feel better in the moment but also to have the outcome be something beautiful so that if the viewer is going through a rough time, they can see this and be reminded that they should have a good time and self reflect on what is stressing them and how they can fix it.

Would you recommend the DP Visual Arts course to students entering the Diploma course? 

Yes.

Is there any advice you would give them?

Make time. If you decide to do higher level (HL), you have do a comparative study in which you compare 3 artists and 3 artworks from different time periods and different cultures and you also have to compare it to yourself. I created 2 pieces that I could compare in my study last summer but I still haven’t properly finished it and it’s very stressful. So top priority is time management; make sure that you can manage your time properly because without the COVID adaptations you have to make about 10 pieces which is a lot. I barely got 8 pieces done even though we were in lockdown. It’s really hard and very time consuming but I am very grateful that I did it. I love doing art, it’s a very reflective way to wind-down and another perk is that you don’t have to write 6 exams!

Anna 

What made you choose the theme ‘Perception’ ?

To be honest, I don’t quite remember. We were given the chance to choose something and were given a few suggestions but I think I chose it because it seemed the broadest. I didn’t want to choose something narrow right before I’d actually started looking at something. Looking back I think it’s too broad because you can do the perception of pretty much anything, but it’s also fun because it means that I can choose whatever I want and just make things fit. It’s a little bit lenient in that respect and that’s nice.

Do you have a favourite piece? Which one and why? 

Yes, it’s called ‘Emaciation’. It’s the photography piece which I did in about 1 or 2 hours. It was a last minute “I have a photography deadline due and I’m leaving soon” – we were leaving the building (a hunting lodge which my grandparents have a timeshare in) that I wanted to do the work in and I wouldn’t be back there because it’s in Minnesota and I was flying back home which is 5 hours away. I was kind of freaking out that I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet but I think it turned out really fun but I also think that it means a lot more to me than it does other people and that’s why I like it. I don’t think anyone else really gets it. The point of the piece is about value, so I had given people a home inspection report and detailed all of the flaws of this building and it is about 200 years old – which in the US is quite old – it’s falling apart and objectively it’s decrepit and not worth anything. But to me, I’ve been going there for like 18 years and it’s a really big part of my family history and I have so many good memories there and I value it despite the dead mice and the holes in the wall and the bats and it’s scary to be there at times but I just love it anyway and I wish I could help people see that.

Would you recommend the DP Visual Arts course to students entering the Diploma course? 

Yes, I think so.

Is there any advice you would give them?

Don’t take it if you don’t want to do the work. There are other ways to do art and it’s really difficult to balance doing CAS creativity and doing Art because they are sort of interchangeable and you have to select what you are going to use in the end. You have to be careful in that respect and if you choose art but don’t want to put in the work – you just like the final pieces – it can be hard because we are not just graded on that.