Throughout my 1st year studying fine art, I have developed my art practice by further exploring the meaning behind paintings, making work inspired by my life, things I enjoy, my thoughts and my emotions. At the start of the year for example, I felt a bit lost, wasn’t sure what to do, and felt guilty for not doing anything. Feeling like I wasn’t good enough, feeling frustrated for not being able to do anything, and then fearing the thought of failure. I therefore decided to portray these emotions through characters from alternate realties, as if I were to take a different route in life, making different decisions, taking influence from the movie Split (Universal Pictures, 2016) and Split Personality by Matt Holman. And to bring these all together I referenced Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures, 2018) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures, 2021), due to the split created in both of the film’s timeline as well as their use of portals.

​

I then continued my wall with themes which are personal to me and tried to convey the things that I really enjoy and that have influenced me in life. Due to living relatively near to the beach, I really enjoy jumping from the rocks into the sea and have become a lot more adventurous in life because of it. I therefore wanted to include this in my wall, emphasizing the movement of the human figure. Maya Deren has influenced me to want to film this movement as she is an experimental filmmaker, known for creating intriguing short films and is interested in the movement of the body.

​

I am also fascinated by the way the earth has been created, with spectacular landscapes, as well as with the amazing colours created in sunsets. One artist who has emulated this beauty in their work is Peter Doig, creating pieces such as Grande Riviere (2002), and Canoe Island (2000). I therefore decided to recreate this feeling by painting a mesmerising, vibrant scene, mainly influenced by Peter Knight and by Claude Monet’s, Houses of Parliament (1904), referring to the light, the reflections, the brush marks and choice of colours and vibrancy. The artworks ‘Rain of a Thousand Flames’ and ‘Chaos of 2012’ gave me the idea to tackle natural disasters and attempt to create the feeling of the end of the world. Since life sometimes feels too good to be true, my piece carries the theme that nothing is perfect, with the world’s demise just around the corner.

​

I was able to carry this environmental theme over to our group project where we created an island, influenced by eco art and environmental art, as well as the installations created by the Harrisons. We then created various paintings relating to the island, a book detailing its meaning, and produced a time-lapse video of our creation as well as a drone like perspective of the island. The creative workshops, have taught me different techniques, including making my own canvases and painting mediums such as ‘egg tempera’, which have been placed on my wall highlighting the idea of a split reality. And the digital and moving image workshops helped me massively in our group project in order to create our video and our book.