By Callum Ludwig
Talented VCE students are being celebrated in an art exhibition on display at The Memo in Healesville, sharing their masterpieces creating during a challenging year of schooling.
Mooroolbark College 2021 VCE student Shayla Kimpton will be part of the Creative Showcase exhibit and found inspiration from the challenges the year presented.
Ms Kimpton said her work highlighted the need for hope and optimism alongside the doom and gloom students often felt during an interrupted year.
“I tried to symbolize it in terms of the colours I used, long drips and darkness to sort of symbolize those hard times, I guess,” Ms Kimpton said.
“But then I tried to contrast with vibrant orange flowers, things to show you can get through it.”
Ms Kimpton is part of 31 VCE and VCAL 2021 students from around the Yarra Ranges who have been given the opportunity to have their artwork displayed in the 2022’s Creative Showcase.
Ms Kimpton said getting to show her artwork off in the showcase makes the challenges of VCE and the events of the past two years feel like a significant achievement.
“It makes it feel like all the hard work and my perseverance and dedication throughout year 12 was all worth it. It feels good to show everyone and have people say you’ve done well, despite how hard it was at times,” she said.
Mount Evelyn Christian College student Holly Sharman is also grateful to have her work on displary at the Healesville Memo this month.
“Having people recognise the hard work put into it makes me feel really good about an outcome I’m really happy with,” she said.
“It’s also really nice this exhibition is free and you can see all the other amazing VCE artworks other people completed at the same time as me.”
Ms Sharman knew she always wanted the theme of her final piece to be relationships, and the restrictions due to Covid-19 lockdowns through her VCE period inspired her decision to revolve the piece around her beloved grandparents.
“I’m very much a family person. I don’t think I saw them for maybe a year or something when we were in lockdown. So it was important I got to draw this for them.” she said.
“It was also a surprise, so they didn’t know I was doing it until it was finished, which was really lovely.”
The family theme won’t stop there for Ms Sharman, who wishes to extend her portfolio of family portraits in future.
“People are definitely my favourite subject matter. I’ve always liked to draw portraits,” she said.
“Hopefully one day I’ll make a massive portrait of myself and my whole family.”
Mater Christi College student Gosia Piosicka explored the theme of gender expression in her work being displayed, particularly honing in on a feminine perspective.
“I knew from the beginning, I wanted to do it about women and femininity and tie it into growing up,” she said.
“Today, women have rights, we’re free to sort of do whatever we want. But there are still some underlying issues we face such as internalized misogyny.”
Ms Piosicka’s art depicted a story of a young woman embracing her sense of femininity and how freeing it can be.
“There’s this stigma in presenting really overly feminine, a weakness in that,” she said.
“I wanted to show liberation can be felt in sort of just being comfortable in who you are, especially as you grow older.”
Ms Piosicka utilised acrylic paints for underpainting, before oils such as linseed oils to finish, while using thick brushes to create depth.
Despite art being a favourite subject of Ms Prosicka, she said it was difficult adjusting to working alone from home.
“It made me realise how much I took for granted just being in the art room. Not only using the materials, but having my teacher there at my disposal all the time,” she said.
“I guess in a way, though, it made me work more independently and realise what I can do on my own.”
Ms Prosicka said the Covid-19 pandemic felt like an interruption and had an impact on her school experience.
“I found it incredibly difficult. I kind of enjoyed remote learning initially, because I’m a bit of an introvert,” she said.
“But over time, I think I just lost motivation.”
Her advice to 2022 VCE students and beyond was to tap into topics they are interested in, and explore from there. She encouraged students to choose a broad theme and then to explore mediums and techniques they wouldn’t otherwise use in their folio.
The exhibition is running from Friday 4 February through to Sunday 27 February, hosted by the Yarra Ranges council in collaboration with Burrinja Cultural Centre.
