Grade 12 - 2011 Karen

My artwork is inspired by the beauty of sadness, the powerful emotion of fear and the mystery of place, presence and time. When I can I like to just sit somewhere quiet and dream outside at night on my own. I can feel calm but also scared, alone and moody if I focus on a cloudy night sky.

Clouds often appear suspended in the sky like a dream, and can change into different shapes as the wind blows. The movement of clouds can be beautiful and terrifying, depending on the state of mind of the watcher and physical weather. How a person defines what they see depends on mindset. When the person is happy, clouds are beautiful and calming. When the person is sad, he/she may see the cloud’s movement as sadness or foreboding.

After completing my first artwork of clouds in oil and acrylic media, I realized that beauty, sadness, and fear are powerful emotions. For me, emotion and evocative feelings inspire me to think of ghosts and presences here or long gone from a place. Everywhere I look, I have a feeling that others have passed there before me and I imagine sometimes that I can feel them still there. When I see a billowing curtain, I feel calmness, sadness, and lonely, but when the wind is gone, I feel like there was something like an essence or a sigh left behind. I used the device of transparent painted curtains, using wax medium and small amounts of paint. Curtains catch draughts and breezes and I imagine it is spirits. I have tried to capture a feeling of calm mystery in my work. My main influence is The Australian artist Brian Dunlop. He captures light, curtains and moods beautifully. Also, being Chinese I have used ink as tribute to my ancestors.

My two years of study have been a big challenge for me, particularly the research, yet I am so glad I have completed the course.