Executive Director’s Award
Nancy Z.
St Mel’s Catholic Primary School, Campsie
Juxtaposition in a Frame
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you look at this artwork? Is it the smooth green landscape? Or the unusually jagged night sky? I wanted to convey the meaning that evil was in the air, with King Herod hot on heels of Mary and Joseph. However the smooth green landscape is to convey a calm and peaceful aura, like justice had been established after Jesus’ birth. As you know, Mary and Joseph were in a confused and frightening situation, but thankfully, with the power of The Holy Spirit, evil was able to be defeated. This connects to the scripture as you can see a wise man pointing at the luminous star. The stable is underneath it and the sheep curiously wonder at this special moment. I tried to bring different elements of the nativity story together into one piece of artwork, so that there could be multiple ways to interpret what you see in this. I used acrylic paint to express my ideas boldly but also to propose a different perspective through the ways I painted each stroke. I also used pencil, black ink pen, white gel pen and an A3 canvas.
