VISUAL ARTS
WELCOME BACK!
Welcome back everyone!
This year there are so many new and exciting projects on the horizon in the Visual Arts. I am delighted to announce the improvements to our Art and Design facilities, with the upgrade of our computer labs and the purchase of iPads for our Main Campus. Our Art Captain program will also be up and running soon, which will facilitate new Art Competitions, Art Clubs and much more!
This year we also begin preparations for an Artist in Residence program. This is a new and exciting endeavor which will allow the school community to work directly with local artists - providing a space for them to work and create art. We are hopeful that in Semester 2 we will welcome our first practicing Artist. Watch this space!
Joining the Visual Arts faculty this year are three new teachers; Maria Garcia, Eliza Portelli and Monica Lo Presti. Each bringing a wealth of specialised knowledge, talent, and passion to our team.
Monica Lo Presti will be teaching Media and Geography. She loves investigating the connections between people and the environment.
Eliza Portelli, our second new Media teacher, is passionate about storytelling and language, and hopes to help students find their own voices.
Maria Garcia has taught Visual Arts for more than 10 years in different countries since she left Spain in 2012. She enjoys sharing her passion for the Arts with her students. Living in Melbourne for less than a year, Maria is enjoying the Aussie life with her partner and little 3-year-old Leo.
Make sure to say hi and give them a warm McKinnon welcome! I am confident they will be instrumental in helping our students reach their full potential.
I encourage all students to explore their artistic passions and embrace the opportunities that our Visual Arts department offers. Whether you are just starting out or have been a dedicated artist for years, there is something for everyone at McKinnon.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
I am thrilled to announce an upcoming art exhibition by our talented art teacher, Rebecca Johnson. The Wave is a joint exhibition by Ms Johnson and Amanda Bartholomew; it ultimately aims to underscore and celebrate the precious and enduring relationship between the two artists and their friendship.
The show explores themes of colour, vibration, theatricality, and their united love of nature in all its guises through a combination of their unified paintings, drawings, and sculptures.
This vibrant and devoted exhibition reflects their consolidated creativity and relationship to celebrate the power of art to connect us all, as it has done for them for many years.
The exhibition will be open from Saturday 18 February – Saturday 1 April at The Aerie Gallery, Burrinja Cultural Centre First Floor, Wurundjeri Country, 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey VIC 3158.
More information can be found on the Burrinja website.
We also celebrate the achievements of our Art Technician, Angie Pai, whose work has been featured in several Assembly Label stores for Lunar New Year. We are very excited to see Angie’s work and look forward to her future exhibitions and art projects.
You can see Angie’s artwork on display at Assembly Label’s Paddington, QV and Fitzroy stores.
TOP DESIGNS 2023
Michelle Guo will be exhibiting her Visual Communication Design Folio in the 2023 Top Designs Exhibition this year. What a huge achievement! There were over 360 submissions for VCD alone this year, with only 30 being shortlisted and just 15 being selected for exhibition.
For her VCD folio Michelle designed a children's book titled “Tuffy”. She designed the entire book from front cover to back, illustrating every page using Procreate. The book tells the story of a day in the life of cat called Tuffy and its owner.
Michelle also designed the graphics for a mindfulness phone app which accompanies her book. The app sees Tuffy help young children understand and navigate their emotions and experiences. The user interface designs that Michelle made consists of a white-noise feature for meditation, a daily mood check-in page, and a trophy/medal page where children can collect medals for completing tasks within the app.
Jenny Hoang was also shortlisted to Top Designs, which in itself is a huge testament to her talents as a designer. Jenny designed a promotional poster for a fictional music event called Mellow Grounds, and also created a to-scale model of a stage for the event.
We congratulate both Jenny and Michelle on their success and look forward to seeing Michelle’s work on display at the Melbourne Museum in the upcoming months.
Peter Eglezos
Visual Arts KLA Manager