I interviewed two students who recently competed in the IB art competition whose works won top marks and were truly impressive. I asked them about their creative process, inspirations and goals for these works. Here were their responses. 

As an artist I wanted to ask them questions about what I know to be one of the most difficult parts of making art, the brainstorm. Once you put pen or brush to paper it’s really just a flow state, but before that you need to develop an idea which is consistent across the page and gets the artist’s point across. 

Dylan Decesaro’s “Kamikaze”, which won the gold key, was a mixed media piece consisting of magazine clippings and paint. The prompt was to create a “non-traditional collage using an adhesive other than just glue”. He used images he cut from a Smithsonian magazine and he wanted to have a piece which focused on what “[he} was creating and not what had already been made.”

Making a collage allows for fluidity in the art making process he said and he enjoys being able to visualize what he’s making in the purest form before he adds any of his own ideas and flair. Collage is naturally a medium which allows for fluidity of ideas and thoughts by expressing them on top of other items, adding to the creativity and meaning through layers of creation.

Justine Mora’s hyperreal watercolor and expressionist charcoal piece won a gold key and silver key respectively and show two very different sides to the coin of art.

She said working with charcoal can feel “never-ending” because of the way you can smudge away your mistakes, as well as the parts you like about the piece. Charcoal truly is a fluid and dynamic medium which is subject to the bruch of a wrist or smudge of a finger.

          When I asked how she brainstormed for more abstract pieces like this she said that she believes “the less brainstorming you do, the better an abstract piece becomes. If you stay in the here and now while creating it, it becomes extremely personal and with that authenticity comes room for interpretation.” She says abstractness comes from what the viewers are left to fill in and not about what is telegraphed on the page.

Her watercolor was a “version of realism” of Lubbock High and not necessarily a 1:1 reproduction but rather what she wanted to see and how she wanted it to look. 

Both of these pieces were looks at expressionism through very different lenses while both capturing a similar type of abstract yet grounded work which is so open to interpretation and appreciation.  Once again congratulations to these artists and thank you for leaving us with these great pieces.