The “Evolutionary Series” attempts to showcase the evolution of photography throughout time, and how nature will always stay the same despite the ever-changing flow of the modern world. Even though time wares off the rural warmth and transitions into urban coldness, the purity of nature is constant. The series is directly inspired by Ansel Adams’ aesthetic appreciation and concern for our natural world, as well as the purity that his photography delivers. 

“Seasons of the Sky” was inspired by the abstract expressionism of “Les Automatistes” and Erin Hanson’s impressionistic use of bright colours. I wanted to create something relating to the yearly cycle of seasons and how the same sky can undergo many changes within that cycle. To do this, I arranged the paintings in a clockwise cycle beginning with Spring. I wanted to capture the way the skies felt instead of how they appeared, and that use of emotion is the main motive for my abstract work.

Moments in time can be turned into memories immortalized through art, which is what I try to convey through “The Memory of Trees”. This work features my great grandparents who are standing alongside familiar trees that I drew en plein air. They are drawn onto an old sheet of music, because just like drawings, music can immortalize moments in time. This ensures that their memory, and the memory of trees, will be forever eternal. It is a reminder and a memory of the roots that bring me here today.

“Pigeon Lake” was directly inspired by Franklin Carmichael’s portrayal of Canadian nature; both an artist and a subject matter close to my heart. Located just outside Sudbury, the lake depicts a calm summer afternoon, host to some of my favourite camping memories. The simple and straightforward scenery shows an ordinary day at an ordinary time; nature untouched by mankind is continuous and undemanding. Nature is the epitome of beauty, and working with acrylic paints helps me to make this clear.

“Infinite Impressions'' is directly inspired by Claude Monet’s theory of capturing impressions of a moment, and the ways light can be explored throughout. Brush strokes are crucial to the lighting of the pieces because they hold the power to choose which colours get to peek through the layers of paint. My intention is for the piece to manifest a sense of infinity in itself, because the layers only come to an end when the impression is done. Nature is infinite in that sense too. 

Landscape photography

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In this piece, I wanted to explore the concept of time and how seasons dramatically change the environment. I used a design that divides the photo into different sectors using rectangular shapes; through the rectangular shapes, I wanted to depict the idea that time passes linearly.

Landscape photography

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In this series, I explored the concept routine. I wanted to depict the struggles one goes through daily, and in each photograph, you'll see a part of the Gas Mask man's everyday life. The mask represents the identity we don't show to society, our inner selves. I made use of a collage technique to layer the subject many times, cloning the subject.

Landscape photography

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In this series, I wanted to explore the idea of movement in time. Through a slow shutter speed and chaotic movement, I tried to depict the feeling of overwhelmedness and chaos that time generates. Time rushes us to live, work, try, and the thought of running out of time crushes us.

Photography 

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In this series, I explored the concept of loss. I wanted to depict the process of losing. I chose to use a donut because, much like donuts, people come in a wide variety of sizes, flavours, colours, fillings, and toppings. The burning donut represents the idea of loss, a once-perfect memory, person, object, reduced to nothingness. To capture the fire, I covered the donut in a flammable substance, and when I introduced the fire to the equation, the donut would begin burning, giving me a short amount of time until the fire vanished.

Photography 

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In this piece, I explored the concept of fragility and instability. When taking these photos, I wanted to depict the fragility of us. The instability of the stack of mugs represents ourselves and how we struggle to find a balance that may only last for a brief moment.  The moody lighting serves to illustrate the grimness of the theme developed in the photo.

Photography 

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In this piece, I wanted to depict the concept of memories. In this piece's context, ghosts are memories, grief, anger; they represent the things we want to see or have already seen, a collection of the things that happened or will happen to us. I made use of a slow shutter speed to capture the subject's movement; by doing that, I created the "ghosts."

Title of Exhibition: So now?

The body of work I created explores many concepts but does not run away from the overarching theme, the passing of time. Throughout the exhibition, I made use of different photographic processes and techniques to depict concepts I had chosen; the photographs symbolize the passage of time in the individual exhibition piece's context. I took great inspiration from the writer, Charles Bukowski; his writings and especially his tirade against the 9' to 5' impacted me greatly. The personal experiences I have lived through and the conflicts that I had to respond to also became fuel to the machine creating the exhibition's concepts.

The sixteen photographs are the amalgamation of the works I thought were the best fitting for the theme. To select those sixteen pieces, I explored different ideas, and as mentioned previously, I used other photographic processes and techniques to achieve the finalized products of the ideas explored. Through the layer-masking tool, I made use of a cloning process that can be seen in the man, i hate it here series, and in the last photograph of the series, i made use of a simple layering, which i also used in the Ghosts photographs. Because of my want to depict motion blur, Ghosts was taken using a slow shutter speed, which I also used in Lights. The criteria I set to consider a photograph "good," was one, how well they worked together with the other exhibition pieces, and, two, how much thought was put into the concept of the photo. Some photos were discarded because they lacked the depth I sought to achieve.

I hoped for the exhibition to be in-person, which, unfortunately, it will not, as the school board decided to migrate to online learning until further notice.  I chose to organize the exhibition layout in a bright to dark order, putting the most colourful pictures at the start and the darkest ones last. The scheme for the organization was an aesthetic and philosophical choice, as the first photo relates to nature and the incredibly drastic changes that happen in the change of seasons, the passage of time in nature is something beautiful, vivid, and the pieces that come after are more gloomy, they are related to the effects of time on humans, they are more melancholic, dark, repetitive.

Medium: Acrylic
This piece was inspired by a British artist name Anita Nowingska, her painting is inspired . This painting has a cultural and historical meaning because Hibiscus also called as Gumamela in my culture. The Gumamela that grow in the Philippines is a called Ancestor, a very old hybrid which make Gumamela were in Philippines island  before humans, also known as the oldest inhabitant on the island that makes hibiscus a precious part of Philippines history. 

Medium: Digital 
This piece was inspired by a Filipino artist named Vicente Manansala , famously known for his cubist painting and illustrators. He develop a techniques called transparent and translucent that he  uses on his painting. I research a lot about my culture and learn some few things by focusing more on what’s important.  I choose the Philippines eagles which considered as the national bird because of its unique features. Its eyes is really sharp, symbolize brave and strength, also known as the lord of the sky.

“Power” was created to educate about what feminism is trying to achieve, being a widespread movement that affects a large part of the world, myself included. Each piece is based on an aspect of what feminism is striving to achieve. The embroidery is inspired by my grandma, a strong woman whose passion for sewing inspired me to stitch the line art; to signify the impact she had on my journey of self specifically, on the importance that passion has in our lives.        

“Blossom” is a Roy Lictensien style portrait surrounded by embroidered flora. The portrait was created in this style as it matched visually and conceptually as it captured the emotion of the journey of self that I wanted in a simplistic manner. I took elements that I had strong connections to me and that I liked visually from previous artworks and developed a single large piece that signifies the creation of an environment in which personal development can flourish.                                                                                                                                          

Berman, Avis, et al. Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, n.d., lichtensteinfoundation.org/.      

“Two Worlds'' was a self-inspired piece rooting from a photoshoot I did about the idea of self, inspiring me to want to further depict this idea in relation to the journey of self that I was on. This piece is a combination of photographs that are based upon the idea of an 'indirect selfie' along with a connection to my Pakistani culture through a multitude of Henna artworks; depicting the aspect of my journey of self in which I wanted to become closer to my cultural roots. 

Due to the closure of my school my exhibition is a virtual experience which is arranged in the same manner it would have in regardless of the circumstances. The order of the artworks is in the same order in which they were created as this allows for the viewers to be taken through the steps and stories of my journey. In the middle is the largest piece entitled Blossom it is placed there as it signifies the most influential aspect of this journey which showcasing the creation of an environment in which growth can flourish. 

There are two factors I considered while deciding which pieces should be a part of my exhibition. The main one being that I chose the artworks I was passionate about because I felt that they contained larger, more prominent self connections. I sometimes have difficulty expressing myself through words, so wanted to use this opportunity to express all the things I can't express through words thus, I chose the artworks that I felt did a good job of this because it allows for my intention to be further expressed. 

My intention with this body of work is to inspire; inspire people to care about themselves, taking that time to learn and grow into their true selves, allowing themselves to blossom in their lives. 

The overall concept of each artwork is stemmed from an aspect of self that has had a significant impact on me. Throughout my art career, I have used acrylic paint because it has been easy but this journey is about trying out different new things to find what works for me and gaining new experiences. Thus, this was the perfect opportunity to explore mediums, techniques, and styles throughout my artworks. Specifically, in the piece entitled Two Worlds, I used henna to create all the artworks on canvases because henna was rooted from my Pakistani culture which allowed me to showcase the aspect of my journey where I wanted to become closer to my cultural roots. 

This piece was inspired by Yelena James, an abstract artist using lines only to create amazing art. Tormentor is inspired by my Filipino traditional and cultural of Ethnic groups. They tattoos their body by sacrificing their skin as a source of accomplished and ranks. They believe its a gift or bless from god and also a sign of their strength as warrior. Each pattern had a meaning by their personality as brave warrior. 

“In the End” was rooted from the aspect of my journey where I want to become more connected to my religion of Islam. I choose this quote as it is about equality, a topic which I thought would be a good place for me to start learning from as I already have strong feelings about. The background is a beautiful abstracted sea of vivid colours which signifies the beauty of this religion and how learning about it can enrich my life.