Karina Ong

Perth Modern School

Year 12

oil on canvas

110 × 76.5cm

This painting explores my love for life beyond the textbooks and pressing issues looming throughout the last year of school, where I come to my messy corner, amidst the chaos to my ‘useless’ hobbies. It’s my escape from the overhead cloudiness of incompetency. Sir Ian McKellen once delivered a speech, with the quote written by Kurt Vonnegut, “Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.” The painting is a snapshot of a sunny afternoon, listening to the sound of my favourite tunes as I’ve returned to my joys between calendar days.