Liliana
Hello! My name is Liliana Reyes and I am currently a senior attending Ronald Reagan Highschool.
My vision for presenting this body of work is to show how throughout the two years of IB DP Art I have grown, both through my research skills as well as my artistic skills. This entire body of work revolves around my personal struggles with depression and how ultimately it is not linear. I explored a lot with mental health terms and factors behind things like depression. Examples of this are how childhood trauma can carry along into adulthood as well as transgenerational trauma (trauma that is passed along generation to generation). |
Throughout these 10 pieces of artwork, most of my inspiration was not based on artists' techniques. I really searched for artists that shared similar motifs and drew inspiration from the “deeper” meaning. This did however let me explore various mediums and techniques, this allowed me to figure out which mediums would be the most effective and efficient when creating art and adding to the “deeper” meaning. A majority of my artwork are 2D, illustrations and painting, which up until DP art I hadn't had much experience with. So throughout these past two years I grew quite keen on drawing with color pencil as it allowed me to create a more natural feeling piece of artwork that correlated well with my overarching theme.
My personal experiences are seen in every piece of artwork I made as it revolves are showcasing my personal struggle with depression. This can be seen through the creation of multiple portraits of not only myself but of others who have helped me or influenced me as well.
I have exhibited my artwork in a way that showcases something similar to a timeline. This concept of setting up my artwork in a timeline allows me to show viewers that life is all about ups and down and progress isn't linear. Sometimes depression takes over for a large part of the timeline and the healing can briefly be seen again. I achieved this concept by compiling and photoshopping my art into something similar to a timeline.
Growing up with a mental illness is not easy and it's not fun. One day you feel like you’re on top of the world and other days feel like your whole world is falling apart and the main objective of this exhibition is to show just that. Suicide and depression is prevalent within younger generations and for me to showcase my struggle openly allows other to know they’re not alone and its okay to not be okay.
The way I have arranged my artwork creates a direct connection to the meaning of the artworks themselves as they all relate to a specific moment in my life. By arranging them in a timeline manner it just further pushes that overall connection.
Getting to create art that revolved around my personal struggles in life was very therapeutic and also allowed me to show others and communicate that depression is very real and progress isn't always linear through a beautiful artform
My personal experiences are seen in every piece of artwork I made as it revolves are showcasing my personal struggle with depression. This can be seen through the creation of multiple portraits of not only myself but of others who have helped me or influenced me as well.
I have exhibited my artwork in a way that showcases something similar to a timeline. This concept of setting up my artwork in a timeline allows me to show viewers that life is all about ups and down and progress isn't linear. Sometimes depression takes over for a large part of the timeline and the healing can briefly be seen again. I achieved this concept by compiling and photoshopping my art into something similar to a timeline.
Growing up with a mental illness is not easy and it's not fun. One day you feel like you’re on top of the world and other days feel like your whole world is falling apart and the main objective of this exhibition is to show just that. Suicide and depression is prevalent within younger generations and for me to showcase my struggle openly allows other to know they’re not alone and its okay to not be okay.
The way I have arranged my artwork creates a direct connection to the meaning of the artworks themselves as they all relate to a specific moment in my life. By arranging them in a timeline manner it just further pushes that overall connection.
Getting to create art that revolved around my personal struggles in life was very therapeutic and also allowed me to show others and communicate that depression is very real and progress isn't always linear through a beautiful artform