Grade 10s Create Self-Portraits with Mask Art

Recently, Ms. Elaine Kao’s IB Art Studio 10 class showcased their personalities through self-portrait masks. Students showed off important things in their lives on their masks, including sports, pets and landscape pictures. Some even got creative with the colours they used as a way to express who they are.  Chanel Lafrance decorated her mask with some of her favourite things, like paw prints to represent her dog, palm trees for her love of travel, and a volleyball for her competitiveness. Chanel used orange and yellow on her mask as she felt warm colours were a good representation of herself, and it was an ode to beach sunsets.  “I hope when people see it they get to know my personality, and that I’m a warm type of person,” she explained.  Sports were a big theme in many of the masks, including Mats Dorsam, who added a soccer ball to his self-portrait, as he hopes to play professionally one day. Mats also included a Costa Rica flag to show where he was born and added a nod to GNS.  “I put GNS because I have been here my whole life and I have built a family here,” he said.  Riya Kang incorporated an airplane as a way to express her personality on her mask and for how much she likes to travel.  “I wanted to add the airplane because I like traveling to different places, but because of COVID-19 we haven’t been able to do that,” she explained. “This December we were supposed to go to Costa Rica with some of our classmates for Round Square and we aren’t able to do that.”  She also added a basketball to indicate not only her love of playing the game, but the family connection with her brother and father, as they have played together every day since she was young. Riya also added a film camera because she enjoys movies and cinematography.  “I hope people’s first impression of the self-portrait is that I am adventurous and I like spending time with my family and friends doing fun things,” she said.