Art in the Diploma programme

Sketchbooks at a Glance

The first year of the Diploma Programme for Visual Arts students is designed for much risk taking through experimentation and introduction of various media. Anya’s very first unit of study was based on two-dimensional dry media and her choice was to work with graphite on paper. In this first attempt to demonstrate skill development and the exploration of artists, Anya focused her attention on Grant Wood and the easily recognized piece titled American Gothic.

Her aim was to modernize a widely-recognized work of art. This piece happens to be selected from 20^th Century Armican Art History. As you can see here Anya chose to emphasize the popularity of drinking coffee and to suggest through her art the impact culture is having on the environment.

If you read Anya’s artist statement you will come to the words, “I am determined to use my passion and natural sense of aesthetics for art to do something different; most importantly do something I love, as art is a fearless occupation.” These words come to practice as she engages with the content and typical challenges that are common in the visual arts class. It was most recently that she demonstrated this, “passion” with her enthusiastic approach to a new assignment. As she very expressively interacted with her classmates, Anya visibly conveyed excitement about her work in progress. She began discussing, considering, and responding to critique focused on her work. She took the ideas from a two-dimensional piece and naturally carried this resolved work of art into the initial design of a developing piece. Images were first discussed, then doodled, flipped, and arranged to help visualize something new.

Suddenly her doodles and practice with acrylic painting techniques were being applied to her earlier work. You can see in the image below a landscape when flipped upside down becomes the meandering lines almost identical to the earlier coffee tree roots growing from a Starbucks cup.

This discussion and natural “fit” is just the kind of thought process which will deliver positive results when considering a DP Visual Arts Students’ curatorial rationale and final exhibition.

Anya’s Non-Objective; Acrylic Painting assignment suddenly became a collage painting that expresses the chaos and order that seems to permeate the learning process. The flexibility of art assignments allows for Anya’s inclusion of representational images and the landscape to compliment her chaos and order expression through non-objective art. This dark and light diptych piece titled Chaos fit perfectly and helped to shape our robust second critique.

Human systems and economic activities	The study of how and why people construct organizations and systems; the ways in which people connect locally and globally; the distribution of power and authority.
Social organization and culture	The study of people, communities, cultures and societies in the ways in which individuals, groups and societies interact with each other.
Continuity and change through time	The study of the relationships between people and events through time; the past, its influences on the present and its implications for the future; people who have shaped the future through their actions.
Human and natural environments	The study of the distinctive features that give a place its identity; how people adapt to and alter their environment; how people experience and represent place; the impact of natural disasters on people and the built environment.
Resources and the environment	The interaction between people and the environment; the study of how humans allocate and manage resources; the positive and negative effects of this management; the impact of scientific and technological developments on the environment.

Living things	The study of the characteristics, systems and behaviours of humans and other animals, and of plants; the interactions and relationships between and among them, and with their environment.
Earth and space	The study of planet Earth and its position in the universe, particularly its relationship with the sun; the natural phenomena and systems that shape the planet and the distinctive features that identify it; the infinite and finite resources of the planet.
Materials and matter	The study of the properties, behaviours and uses of materials, both natural and human-made; the origins of human-made materials and how they are manipulated to suit a purpose.
Forces and energy	The study of energy, its origins, storage and transfer, and the work it can do; the study of forces; the application of scientific understanding through inventions and machines. (IBO, 2009)

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