Creating a Story Through Art

February 7, 2020

Academics

GNS

Telling a story through art is what William Li will look to accomplish at the IB Art Exhibition being held from March 4 to 6 in the lobby of Denford Hall. William sees his creative pieces as a reflection of himself, and viewers will get a chance to see his story through the multiple pieces he plans to curate.

“Most of my pieces reflect me,” he said. “It’s kind of like a self-portrait in a way. Some of the pieces represent the qualities I want to pursue like honesty, loyalty and courage.”

A lot of the pieces he notes will tell a story about a specific time in his life and how he overcame it.

“At the beginning of the year, I lost my way in my art-making process, so I just focused and narrowed down. I focused on one then expanded that out,” William said.

William uses acrylic paint as his medium in the creative art process and is influenced by his family, who are also artists.

“My mom, dad, uncle and my grandpa all do art, but most of them do pencil drawings or pen and ink, nobody did acrylic,” he said. “The reason why I chose acrylic was because it is a very affordable medium in modern days. It’s easy to access, and I want to create art with a material that’s easy to obtain and create something out of the ordinary.”

While William’s family and his life are influences in his art, he does get inspired by other artists. One of the pieces on display will be an Airforce One shoe that he painted. Using Vincent van Gogh as his inspiration, he painted it like the famous Starry Nights scene.

“I’m a big van Gogh fan,” he said. “Most of my work, the technical styles, are inspired by van Gogh impressionist styles.”

When all of the pieces are on display, William hopes spectators learn his story and get the message he is trying to convey through his art.

“Each piece of artwork not only represents me as a person, but it also conveys a message,” he said. “My self-portrait, for example, includes animals, which represent five qualities.”

The bear represents courage, the deer represents fortitude, the sheep represents honesty, the dog represents loyalty, and the elephant represents empathy.

“I wish those five qualities could be conveyed through those artworks and people to recognize them and strive towards them as I did,” he said.

William plans to bring his artistic talent to his post-secondary studies when he leaves GNS as hee will be looking into studying architecture.

“I want to incorporate architecture with art, like a visual form and functionality form and combine them—I wrote my extended essay about these two things,” he added.

The IB Art Exhibition will coincide with the Senior School musical production of Mary Poppins, so don’t forget to check out the art displays in the lobby of Denford Hall that will include William and five other students’ pieces.

“It’s fun to look at other people’s art,” said William. “You take away from what you interpret with each artwork and it brings out your own qualities.”