IMAGES 2021/2022: A Shattered Symphony
December 2021 – June 2022
Latcham Art Centre is thrilled to be partnering once again with the graduating class of Stouffville District Secondary School (SDSS) in the exhibition A Shattered Symphony. For over two decades, the grade twelve art students from SDSS have worked with the Art Centre’s curator to mount a professional exhibition that presents the artworks they have created over the course of their first semester. This year, due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this annual exhibition was exclusively online through the Latcham Art Centre website on December 14, 2021.
It is important to recognize that these students represent the next generation of artists from the Whitchurch-Stouffville community and this creative online platform provides them an accessible space for the community to view their talents. In addition to creating works that respond to their senior education curriculum, students are also responsible for conceiving a curatorial theme, project title and class statement describing the exhibition.
This year, the class was inspired by modern artists, environmental art as well as their own experience and resilience as young artists during the pandemic. On behalf of the class, artist Vanessa Simoes states, “In these times, many of us have decided or have been forced to work with what we are given. In this capacity, we have become used to not having canvas, paint brushes, or paint, and because of this, we have inaugurated our own concepts of modern art. Much like modern artists, our own stylistic choices are evident when viewing this exhibition.”
Click here to read the class statement. Click here to visit the virtual exhibition on Art Steps.
Participating artists: Michael Amarelo, Gillian Bedford, Emma Belo, Jaxson Black, Jess Cao, Jordan Colclough, Jessica Cowling, Megan Donaldson, Lisa Huang, Thenuga Jeyaratnam, Isabella Markos, Andrew McKinley, Vivian Nguyen, Tayla Pyke, Gillian Robinson, Laura Seeley, Isabella Silmi-Esteves, Vanessa Simoes, Imoenne Warner, Andrea Xu, Holly Zammit
Latcham Art Centre gratefully acknowledges and the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario Arts Council and the Lions Club of Stouffville for their generous support of this exhibition.
Soul Entry
Acrylic paint on watercolour paper
Inspired by modern art I created a perspective painting using Acrylic paint that changes by the angle you look at it. The one painting is two paintings cut together. When looking at it from the left there is a girl’s face. From looking at it from the right you see her silhouette. In both she has a glowing aura which is orange. An orange aura means creativity, warm and intense energy. I created this artwork to evoke feelings of warmth, excitement and happiness by using the colour orange.
The Husk of Society
Watercolour on Canvas
My artwork is a representation of today’s modern society and the connection we have with technology. The H.R. Giger esque take on dark expressionism with the mix between organic and synthetic represents this well. This artwork was inspired by the technological modification of the human race in the video game trilogy Mass Effect. I decided to take inspiration from this series because it takes much precedent within modern society and our reliance on technology which can in some cases control us which is being depicted in my artwork. In this artwork, I attempted to use the style of George Rouault who used pained expressions to convey the intense subject matter.
Please Don’t Remind Me
Mixed Media
Jack, Queen, King
Mixed Media
The complex imagery of Jack, Queen, King resists easy interpretation when viewing each of the six pieces as a grouping. It appears as if each piece is separate from the others, however, a deeper look into the subject itself explains just how connected they truly are. I originally intended to complete each piece with an overlay of one of fifty-two playing cards; focusing on the face cards. I felt it was more meaningful to condense the fifty-two card deck into six cards that truly represent my beliefs and inner mind. The “Art Card” showcases a colourful blue crayon, taped to a blank sheet of paper, representing my journey with art. The “Drive Card” showcases a bubblegum pink car driving along a curvy road, with different cross roads and lights behind it. This card represents my love for driving, as well as how I felt after being in a car accident; stuck in an endless road. The “Butterfly Card” showcases a dog hatching out of a cocoon with butterfly ears; representing not only my love for animals, but also representing growing new passions throughout life. The “Green Face Card” showcases a girl with half of herself with green skin, placed before a colourful background. This card represents how every individual puts up a front when they realistically have many different emotions behind their straight-face. The “Silence Card” showcases an older man silenced by an American dollar bill; representing the silencing of many issues across the world in which we choose to be willfully blind to avoid speaking about them. The “Me Card” showcases my face in graphite with contrasting overlays of coloured features; representing what I believe my strongest features to be as well as the message of appreciating the good in everything, no matter how bad the situation is. All six of the pieces featured in Jack, Queen, King are created with form, colour, value, and line which all work in their own way to exemplify the meanings behind each card. (Insert photos of the six card titled photos)
Blurred Phases
This work, titled “Blurred Phases,” is inspired by the surrealist art style. It is an artistic portrayal of times in my life which I am very passionate about. Photography is a really significant passion of mine that I have been doing for years, therefore it was crucial that I include it into this. Each shot, together with the colour palette, symbolizes a period in my life and the many themes that I’ve attained as a photographer. By blurring the photographs together using oil pastels, I was able to merge them into a single piece that is representative of myself.
The Anguish of Humanity
The Anguish of Humanity
AHHHHHHHH
Digital drawing
A depiction of the artist falling from the sky, surrounded by an assortment of belongings with deep connections to their psyche. Many of the items reference some kind of media personal to the artist, such as video games, friends, and even hobbies.
Philofantasical Meloharmdia, 2021
Acrylic paint on wood
A single connected wood plank that was split apart to form three different pieces sharing a single theme. The pieces depict an entity of some kind, a demon, an angel, or something more. None of them face the viewer directly, having their positions take the lead.
Blindly Follows
Acrylic paint
For my painting I was inspired by pop art and optical art as well. This piece conveys how people blindly follow anything, that’s why I intentionally did not put an eye. The swirls in the back convey people taking the wrong path and going in any direction rather than their chosen path.
Driving On
Acrylic paint and mixed media
I created this piece as a representation of my journey through the pandemic. What started out as wanting to paint on a mirror quickly developed into a rear view mirror and the idea of reflecting on the past. Using the mirror was inspired by Michelangelo Pistoletto and his works on mirrors. His idea to “create face to face encounters” was an aspect I also wanted to portray because those encounters were so limited during Covid, I used this element to remind us of their importance. I was also inspired by Fauvism’s style of using colours to present emotions and more specifically Picasso’s Blue and Rose periods to use warm and cool colours to represent different emotions. I used a variety of blues to cover the majority of my pieces to represent the overwhelming difficulties throughout this time. For the rose period I combined red, pink and splashes of neon orange.
Surrealist Selfie
Digital drawing
This art piece is a representation of myself and my interests. The piece is split into two parts. One side represents fantasy, which shows things such as my favourite tv shows, movies, games, and characters. The main person on this side is one of my own characters that I have created. The other side of the piece represents reality, which shows things such as my love for music,and drawing, As well as my favourite animals. The main person on this side is myself in my own style.
Lost in Thought
Digital Drawing
This artwork is a surrealist selfie, I took 3 landscapes of my favourite video games including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, and Death Stranding. This artwork is a depiction of myself, the only way I destress from school and outside factors is by playing video games, these games bring me into a new world where my problems can melt away. In this image I drew the box to represent by television where I am coming through, my hand is slowly growing colour and one of the characters from one of the games is reaching out to pull me into this fictional utopia, this is to represent the pressure and stress from my life leaving and slowly I am engulfed in full colour and I can be relaxed.
Below the Great Blue
Ink and pencil crayon on Bristol board
The inspiration for this piece was the sea both above and below the surface. Colouring with only blue incorporates the principles of dominance and unity throughout the artwork tying all the elements together.
When Two Worlds Collide
Acrylic paint on fabric
Sun and Clouds
My piece represents both the sad and happy feelings and emotions people face that is portrayed with the warm and cool colours. Someone can look happy on the outside and be hurting on the inside, you never know what challenges people face. I got this idea when playing around with paints and colours, I started to blend colours and used a palette knife to apply the thick paint onto the canvas. I wanted to do something different, not just painting with a brush but adding texture through the paint and knife. Mental health is a big part of my life and how I express it through my art. For this piece I was very inspired by Jacksons Pollock’s abstract expressionism. He would incorporate all different elements and principles of art and design to create his pieces. I wanted to take that and make something that would portray myself.
Cold Hardwood Floor
Acrylic paint
Inspired by Picasso’s blue period and the piece The Old Guitarist, the piece Cold Hardwood Floor shows a girl hunched over in a frigid, dark place. The position the girl is in portrays feeling small and unwanted. The cool colours used depict how it feels to be in a poor mental state.
Behind The Facade
Watercolour, acrylic paint, and ink on canvas
Behind The Facade is a piece conveying a person’s facade towards other people compared to when they are alone. When viewed from the left side of this piece, the viewer is seeing someone who has a mask over their face, covering their real self. The optical illusion represents how the viewer may be confused about the genuineness of the person. From the right side of the piece, the mask is revealed and the viewer can see all the aspects of the person showing vulnerability.
Behind The Facade
Watercolour, acrylic paint, and ink on canvas
Behind The Facade is a piece conveying a person’s facade towards other people compared to when they are alone. When viewed from the left side of this piece, the viewer is seeing someone who has a mask over their face, covering their real self. The optical illusion represents how the viewer may be confused about the genuineness of the person. From the right side of the piece, the mask is revealed and the viewer can see all the aspects of the person showing vulnerability.
The Dream Ramp
Graphite and charcoal on wood
This piece of art was inspired by the skatepark and my love and passion for it. I added all the graffiti to it to represent my other hobbies and passions like the mouse and the lightsaber from Star Wars. I chose the mouse because I love playing games and learning about computers. I chose Star Wars because I really like the movie. I’ve loved it since I was a little kid. I wrote a few words in a graffiti type font and one of the words is “Dream” I chose that word because I find it is a really meaningful word because it tell me too dream big and when I think of the word dream I think of something big and I try to achieve it.
broken is still beautiful
Mixed media
In this Andy Goldsworthy inspired creation, my piece symbolizes that although something may be dead or broken, it is not expired or uninteresting, but still beautiful. I got this idea during a walk with my art class. The inspiration came to me while passing an abundance of different coloured flowers; I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate those, but the idea didn’t formulate until I walked through a forest and noticed all the split and tilted trees. I wanted my piece to look like the colorful and pretty flowers were spewing out of the crack in the tree branch, conveying the idea that the tree is brought back to life and is still a work of art. This creation is meaningful and special to me because I feel it spreads both a beautiful and inspiring message that people tend to have forgotten.
Blind Happiness
Acrylic paint and mixed media
“Blind Happiness” is about exaggerated consumerism. The bag is a trap for happiness that watches you from behind a shop window. I used colour distortion to make an emotional impact and convey ideas. From this work, I make a social critique of unbridled capitalist consumption. It generates garbage and gives us false happiness too. It is important to draw people’s attention to this issue that is often hidden in our daily lives. Furthermore, the pictures around it are basically the real feelings of the temporary satisfaction of purchase, the feeling of falling. Overall, my inspirations for this artwork come from modern Fauvist, Surrealist, Abstract Expressionist artists, and I have tried to cover subject matters from Protest Art, pointing out the capitalist evil. I used ink because I believe it is one of the freest ways to express colours. Its liquidity is good to handle. So, even though I do not address social issues as much, I believe they should be presented.
Beyond What You See
Graphite on paper
The idea behind this piece of work was to present myself how the world sees me. The message behind the whole artwork is how we all look the same on the outside, but it is not until we open up that people begin to see who we really are. I presented this message through my artwork by creating two different flaps with drawings of hands on both of them that open up to reveal things/ people that make me who I am. On the outside on the left side I drew a set of hands revealing nothing, but the eyes and once you open it up it displays the people who make me who I am, and on the outside on right side I drew a set of hands that reveal nothing and once you open it up it displays the things that make me who I am.
Beyond What You See
Graphite on paper
The idea behind this piece of work was to present myself how the world sees me. The message behind the whole artwork is how we all look the same on the outside, but it is not until we open up that people begin to see who we really are. I presented this message through my artwork by creating two different flaps with drawings of hands on both of them that open up to reveal things/ people that make me who I am. On the outside on the left side I drew a set of hands revealing nothing, but the eyes and once you open it up it displays the people who make me who I am, and on the outside on right side I drew a set of hands that reveal nothing and once you open it up it displays the things that make me who I am.
Beyond What You See
Graphite on paper
The idea behind this piece of work was to present myself how the world sees me. The message behind the whole artwork is how we all look the same on the outside, but it is not until we open up that people begin to see who we really are. I presented this message through my artwork by creating two different flaps with drawings of hands on both of them that open up to reveal things/ people that make me who I am. On the outside on the left side I drew a set of hands revealing nothing, but the eyes and once you open it up it displays the people who make me who I am, and on the outside on right side I drew a set of hands that reveal nothing and once you open it up it displays the things that make me who I am.
Travel Museum
Acrylic on canvas
Memory Defrag
Digital and mixed media
As an artist, I want to convey my emotions and present multiple interpretations to the audience. I use a lot of mixed media to highlight this. “Memory Defrag” represents the paradoxes of life as I see it. The contrast between the interior and the outside of the head shows the struggle for well-being. There are days when we are good, and there are days when we are not good or even both at the same time. It is an analogy to Schrödinger’s cat theory. The cat is simultaneously dead and alive because of a random subatomic event inside a box. And even so, we need to face this contradiction with our fragmented memories, as we do not remember them all. The objects inside the head are focused on my hobbies and interests, which is a part of who I am currently. My inspirations come from them and modern surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí and Rene Magritte. I also believe that eyes carry many meanings. A look holds many feelings.
