Confused, acrylic and charcoal
Amaya Aquino
Monterey High School | Junior
My name is Amaya Aquino, and I am a Junior at Monterey High School. Being a part of the Art, Media and Performance Academy and the Diploma Programme inspires me to dive deeper into my art, which has helped me tremendously with finding what I love to create. My art is a reflection of who I am. I incorporate my personality, style and feelings into my artwork. As an artist, I strive to create art that makes me feel happy and accomplished.
I learned the techniques of acrylic painting during my sophomore year. Using graphite is more in my comfort zone, but I challenged myself to use acrylic in this piece. When I am using acrylic, my art style becomes more whimsical and colorful. Whereas with graphite or charcoal, I tend to draw more realistically. I decided to combine both acrylic and charcoal in this piece to show contrast in my art style.
Within the past few months, I have been exploring myself as an artist. My main influences come from social media because seeing what other people create inspires me to try different techniques. The painting that I have created embodies the evolution of my art and encompasses who I am. A previous painting I did is similar to this piece. It is playful, eccentric and displays organic shapes. This painting has evolved from my last painting with several improvements, like my attention to detail and overall neatness. A theme I see in my artwork is unsettling, grotesque beauty. The colorful and intricate background contrasts with the dull, asymmetrical face. With this painting, as well as all of the other work I create, I want the viewer to interpret their own meaning and explore why they interpreted it in that way.