Students Win 6 Awards at Atwell Youth Art Awards
- June 24, 2021
Students from Santa Maria College did particularly well at the recent Atwell Youth Art Awards taking out six awards.
- Moya Lyne, Year 12 – Gillian Pebbles Award – Best In Show
- Lucy Kilroe, Year 12 – Winner of the Thelma Cluning Drawing Award
- Ella Connell, Year 11 – Highly Commended May Mason Wearable Art Award
- Lilli Sorci, Year 11 – Winner Special Award for Current Events
- Sophia Marra, Year 10 – Curator’s Pick
- Rebecca Barker, Year 10 – Winner Terra Boya 3D Award.
We asked the girls to tell us about the inspiration behind their winning pieces.
Rebecca Barker – Terra Boya 3D Award.
My artwork is about making something out of what you already have and turning a couple of little things into something completely different. I was inspired by people who upcycle their items and use things for different purposes.Â
Ella Connell – Highly Commended May Mason Wearable Art Award
My artwork is a wearable art piece named ’Floriana’ which means flower. I created an Australian-themed jumpsuit, by painting bottlebrushes, eucalyptus leaves, and gum flowers, which I printed onto fabric to stitch onto my jumpsuit using wool and thread. My piece was inspired by the Christian Dior Spring-Summer collection, which is a collection of wearable art that uses a range of stitching, a neutral colour palette, and floral designs. This collection inspired my Australian-themed floral design, and the colours I chose to use were muted greens, beige, and red for flowers.Â
Moya Lyne – Gillian Pebbles Award- Best In Show
My artwork is about the uncertainty of what awaits us after death and the limbo between life and death. It was inspired by our Year 12, Semester 1 theme of ‘Uncertain Journeys’. Â
Lilli Sorci – Special Award for Current Events
My artwork is to demonstrate COVID in the media and how fast something can take over the news.
The mask covering the bear’s face symbolises how something so dystopian and unnatural, like the whole world wearing masks, can become a reality in such a short amount of time. It covers the bear’s eyes because no one saw something so powerful, like the virus, coming as it was very unpredictable.
The bear represents childhood and how children are very vulnerable and innocent, and the pandemic took away the innocence of people and forced them to stay home while being very vulnerable in terms of not knowing what was to come next.
The inspiration for my piece came from the experience of living during the pandemic and seeing it take over all forms of media. The bear idea came from walking through the empty streets and seeing teddy bears in the windows.
Lucy Kilroe – Thelma Cluning Drawing Award
My piece ‘Maurice’ conveys the theme of an ‘uncertain journey’, through presenting aging and the ambiguity of life. I was inspired by my family, in particular my grandfather, and the wisdom he offers to me through his lived experience. Through my piece, I aimed to portray the human nature of aging and construct a diverse view of what it means to grow old as an uncertain but significant journey.   Â
Sophia Marra – Curator’s Pick
Our Term 2 project was centred around sculpture. We drew our inspiration from artist Troy Emery’s pom-pom covered animals. We created our own exhibits using butcher’s paper, tissue paper, sticky tape, and various coloured pom-poms.
I made the decision to sculpt an octopus as its eight long tentacles and complex form would lend themselves well to the project. Although initially inspired by the project brief, I drew inspiration from real life when covering my sculpture in pom-poms. I had recently watched the documentary My Octopus Teacher on Netflix and was intrigued with the creature’s ability to camouflage. Though much of the piece is covered with red, orange, and maroon, the base is costumed with sea green. I chose this to pay homage to the octopus’ natural habit and its ability to mimic its external environment as a means of survival.Â
- Creativity, Featured
Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.