When you’re a junior in high school and you’re told you have two years to create a cohesive body of work for an exhibition, where do you even start? Do you just begin by producing pieces of art as the ideas come to you, or do you pick one theme and stick to it? What if you change your mind about a theme halfway through, what then? There is no right answer, nor is there a one-size-fits-all process to creating visual art.
As part of the IB Visual Arts class I was taking, I was faced with the task of creating 8 to 13 pieces of work to be displayed at an exhibition that would be graded and factored into my IB score. The assignment was completely open ended, with the decisions of media and theme being left to us, the “artists.” Throughout the two years of the class, a process emerged of making art, which started with one thing: research.
Some say that nothing is original; artists steal from other artists, who steal from other artists, and so on. To a certain degree, this is the truth. Art emerges from inspiration that oftentimes comes from other art. There have even been countless art movements that came from pre-existing movements. In class, we were taught to research and write about artists and art that seem interesting to you and have elements that fascinate you. Through this research will you, as an artist, develop a response and gain some inspiration. Here are some research pages from my sketchbook that have played a big role in the paintings I ended up making.
After researching, brainstorming, and planning the piece, you are ready to create the art. Personally, this was the best part for me, as I really enjoy the process of painting. Throughout this process, we had to document our progress in making the pieces. The process included writing reflections in our journals about difficulties we had, how we overcame them, and whether we strayed from our original plans for the artwork.
The final exhibition, which was held in May, was a very rewarding experience. After spending two years on a body of work and curating it, the final product came together in a very nice way. I just hope I can find time to paint more, because it really is a hobby of mine.
