Art

The Cat

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In my artwork, I incorporated the world throughout the vision of a black cat. The people looking out of the art piece are the viewers that can only see half of a man’s body, focusing only on the cat and the butterfly. Since we cannot see much of the man, we look directly at them. I wanted to demonstrate a moment that I have a lof in my life where I just feel tired, or too stressed to focus on the small things of life, which is what the black cat and the butterfly show; they demonstrate the beauty on the small things in life, that sometimes can go unnoticed by others since we tend to stress ourselves by focusing only on the future and on what we need to work on. What makes me get through the rough and stressful times is simply do like the black cat, which is look at the small things that life provides us, and just for a minute stop to appreciate them. This is what gives me hope and power to keep going.

More Than One

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I feel like society has changed a lot of time. Many don’t feel comfortable in their own skin and they don’t express themselves. I hope this project helps others understand that it is ok to be who you are and feel comfortable for what they stand for.

Relief for the Chained

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My painting shows the injustice within the world and a dove is blooming out of the center of the earth. People are kind people as long as we try to be. Sadly, colored people are generally oppressed which is why the arms supporting the earth is a brown color. The shards of the earth is also cracking and falling towards the ground as seen in the picture. I would like to note that the hands were inspired from the internet. But I did come up with the idea.

The Changes In Me

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A year ago, I was feeling empty and incomplete. In my self-portraits, the black and white outlines portray me being in a dark place not knowing what would happen next. As I began to look at my situation, I looked to find things that would make me feel happy, complete. The color started to return to my life when I began to draw to express my feelings. This is where you see the color return, and the positive changes in me. In looking at me in black and white and color, I see hope that my life will continue to get better and better.

Hope Within My Walls

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My visual art is a representation of how I find hope and brightness in today’s events. I feel safe and hopeful within a creative environment. I love to paint and sing along all types of music because they’re platforms that unite all people. It connects us, just like the internet. Because of the pandemic, we seem to find ourself easily hopeless and alone but the internet is a tool that has granted us the ability to connect with all different people. This is why I incorporated all these concepts into one. I wanted to demonstrate how unity and effort leads us to a hopeful and brighter tomorrow.

Saving Everyone

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Over the past year I’ve experienced many changes in who I am. I am an incredibly social person, and suddenly I found myself alone and without a way to connect with people. My art highlights two characters, LadyBug and Cat Noir. They are kind and generous, and they never leave people out. I wanted to express that even though I feel alone, that I’m not. Reaching out to others is important, and everyone matters.

Not Enough

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Through social media, peers, and ourselves, we often fall into a loop of our appearance, being controlled by our looks and body shape. I often hear people say that they are “not enough” of this and that, which leads to a mindset that is only focused on looks. Adding some elements of self-image, the person that is overall controlling our appearance is ourselves, so I drew a dark image of the girl being controlled. Feeling helpless and trapped as a life-less puppet is what our self-image has come to these days. Through this art piece, I was hoping for at least one person to look at themselves in the mirror and like their appearance without worrying about what others thought of them.

The Hope in Music

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“My piece shows how music can positively impact mental health. Although surrounded by darkness, the bright stream of music gives the person a reason to smile and hope.”

Your Not Alone

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In my drawing shows a mind with a corrupted glitch showing that we struggle with mental health and the sayings your not alone were here don’t give up because many people who struggle with mental health feel they are alone when millions of people go through the same thing

Alive Again

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Since the young age of eleven, mental health has been a large impacter in my life. I didn’t plan on making it to sixteen. That was never my plan. There was no way I would let myself continue living this life full of emotional torment. Something switched this past year in my mind, however. I didn’t see life as this annoyance I had to put up with. I didn’t wake up dreading the fact that I had to get up and start another day. I didn’t see the world as the enemy, myself as a ghastly parasite needing to be exterminated. I found a sense of worth inside me, despite the years of torture I put myself through. The other day I found myself at a moment of complete peace–laying in grass, feeling the blinding sun, cheeks warm, thoughts calmer than the waking dawn. It almost brought me to tears; I didn’t remember the last time I was able to be carefree without experiencing self-deprecative thoughts. Smiling genuinely into the camera, I took a snapshot of this small, but mighty moment. That picture is what inspired me to create this artwork–I wanted to find a sense of closure in myself, and engrave in my mind the exact instant I realized there had been a change. I wove lime green ribbon into my hair to represent the stories that are hidden inside us all, pushed aside due to the stigma of struggle in our society. I’m not going to push those ribbons deep inside my pocket anymore, away from the world to see. I am proud of who I became, and proud of my journey to getting to where I am today–sixteen.