Koala
by Caitlin Foster
About the Artist
I am currently a senior attending UIW. My major is B.F.A with a concentration in drawing, I do a lot of illustrations but am slowly shifting my focus towards painting! I am expected to graduate December 2020. I focus on combining fantasy and nature for a surreal experience, but keep an underlying theme about conservation, the consequences of our actions.
Interview with the Artist
What inspired you to create this piece? I was inspired by the countless images and articles I had seen of the bush fires in Australia. It had moved me emotionally, and I was inspired to create awareness, and to also bring personal comfort/time to myself to reflect the tragedy.
What does your piece represent? My piece represents representation of the animals that are suffering, and losing their habitat to a man made disaster that could have been prevented.
Describe the creative process like. I listen to music the whole time to keep my emotion and passion elevated throughout the creation process. Music inspires me and it is nearly impossible for me to really have my heart and true effort in a piece without listening to some sort of music that touches me in some way or another.
How did the color scheme and layout play a role in creating this art piece? My color is a constant in my pieces, it's what makes my art 'mine.' With the layout, I used a couple of reference pictures to create a basic composition, and then let my own imagination come up with the color scheme and small details. I really wanted the koala to pop, and become the center of the piece, so I wanted to downplay the colors of the background to make that possible.
What story is your art piece telling? I wanted my image to incapsulate a sort of melancholy. Maybe not a story, but a mood projected onto the viewer. I love for my viewers to have their own story and personal connection with my pieces. However, I always want to be in control of the tone so that the mood projected is what I intended the audience to feel.
Editorial Comments:
“Koala is a very beautiful piece that is relevant in this year 2020, as it can be related to the love of nature's beauty and the need to conserve it, specifically concerning the discussions of global warming and global forest fires affecting nature.”
Team Judgement:
We believe this artist did an excellent job with their art piece in the following categories: Theme, Execution, Content, Relatable and Relevance.