MICOL LICASTRO

Art has always played an important role in my life and has determined the way I understand the world. It has always had a wide definition and my main belief was that anything can be art. Throughout the IB course, I initially focused on the belief that art can be anything, including the things that are generally discarded in society. This led me to artists such as Keith Arnatt and Arman where there were aspects of the beauty in rubbish such as their use of colour or composition. This idea became an exciting one. How could I make rubbish or everyday objects beautiful? How could change the perceptions of the audience using mundane and discarded objects. This led me to follow a path that has defined most of my course. I have experimented with vibrant uses of colour and composition, combining this idea of beauty and the mundane. For example, in my trash series, I created multiple photographs of trash assembled in a certain way with a strong light source. This then became a painting where again I confronted this idea which generated unusual results. John Baldessari also became a fascination for me, firstly his quote will not create boring Artwork’ attracted my attention, as what do we define as boring? What would be considered exciting? However, I loved his combination of unusual pairings, for example the bright coloured circles placed over his photography. This almost creates a disturbance for the viewer that I wanted to emulate within my work. Much to the despair of my teachers, I therefore placed rubbish into my beautiful painting, composed my paintings in a central mundane way to break conventions that define beautiful art. The exploration of the many mediums of art, allowed me to express my passion for this subject. Furthermore, due to the demanding IB visual art course, I have developed the valuable skill of perseverance, commitment and this has enriched my understanding of the theoretical and practical areas of art. Overall, art is a tool that allows anybody’s most extravagant ideas to come to life.