RCHK students can do no wrong as they evolve into artists
Written By Tiffany Fan
A fun time is had at The Big Draw
Three long sheets of paper stretched across the width of the assembly hall, the white surface covered in colourful marker ink. Students were hunched over, carefully tracing their markers on the remaining empty spaces on the paper. The Big Draw had begun.
Organised by art teacher Katherine Sparrow, The Big Draw event involved three days of art workshops, and was held from Tuesday October 15 to Thursday October 17 in the Performing Arts Centre. The theme of the workshop centred around the concept of ‘metamorphosis’. Each day during lunchtimes, different types of art supplies were provided for students to simply walk in and freely draw anything they wished.
Guests artists were also invited to the event to guide students on their art projects. Street artist Alex Croft was one such artist who was invited to the first day of the workshop.
“I’ve been asked to come as an artist to guide the workshop and give people ideas and feedback to help them,” Croft elaborates, “The objective is to do a collaboration of drawings with students of different years with a theme based around metamorphosis. It’s supposed to be a mix of everybody coming together to draw what they imagine...the idea is to bring people together and have fun.
Students eagerly responded with “yes” when questioned whether they were having a good time at the event. “It’s pretty fun to draw whatever you want,” student Chenuki Gunasekera commented, “I just really like art, it’s a hobby.”
Likewise, Year 7 student Bardo Tsa expressed his enthusiasm for art while drawing “a variation of an owl. When prompted on what subjects he was mostly interested in illustrating, he replied, “Magic stuff. I never draw real things unless I want to.”
The Big Draw allows students to step back from school time to simply immerse themselves in their imagination and enjoy themselves, an important aspect in life that students may overlook when faced with academic challenges.
“Just go ahead and [don’t] be worried about making mistakes,” Croft advises students. After all, people are, like Croft’s interpretation of the theme metamorphosis, “something that’s constantly changing...evolving.”
