We are living in abnormal conditions at the moment, something none of us expected. It isn't, however, my first time living through an abnormal condition. Throughout my life, I have intentionally and unintentionally put myself in difficult pathways/situations. In middle school and primary school, I studied two curriculums alongside each other for necessities at the time. I took advantage of that and enhanced my English language, my presentation skills, and time management. In high school, I entered STEM, which is a project-based school, in which you make scientific projects following the Engineering and design process. Only top scorers entered this school, so it wasn't a familiar educational pathway. I took advantage of my time there to learn about the basics of electronics, programming, scientific research, and many more. Then I got into Med school, and I chose to enter a special program there, that is based on early clinical practice and gives you the opportunity to go for medical programs abroad. I took advantage of that and have already been to Britain, where I enrolled in a 4-week Medical program last January. We are all experiencing a global pandemic now. It is a stressful time, especially that my father is a doctor, so he goes to the hospital a couple of days a week and he is abroad, so I get to be stressed out for him everyday. I have experienced this intensity of stress many times in my life, and I chose every time not to give in. I always wanted to see what happens if I don't give up. In this quarantine, I have taken an online medical course, read a Neuropsychology-related book, learned some new songs on the ukulele, learned how to cook, lost weight, and started painting my room which I rather like to call it my "Office".
People think that a fish always needs its pond to thrive and live well. It needs its water to be able to do extraordinary things. They assume that a man needs all the circumstances around him, to be in the so-called "ideal state" in order to become someone huge. They all ignore the fact that we aren't fish, we have wings and we can only show our true potential and soar with those wings when we are out in the wild, out in the dangers. We can only shine when we break loose.
I chose this challenge because I have always loved to express my ideas and feelings through art. I have always trained myself to draw since 4th grade and I kept self-teaching myself until I became confident with my art and I am still improving. In 2018, I started painting on walls, and I started getting better and better at it. I also use art as a self-therapy technique from all of the life situations that can cause depression. Because I love art so much, and I just started painting on walls, I decided it would be a good idea to share my thoughts of this global pandemic through art in this challenge.
I wanted to express the idea that there is no such thing as "ideal" or "Perfect" circumstances through which someone can shine and do great things. In fact, it is through rough time that the true metal of someone appears, and its through the harsh stressful times that someone can do great things. The pandemic made some people built mechanical ventillators utilizing the basic knowledge they have, made artists have more time to make more art, made others have time to take some online courses in the fields they love...etc. All of these things and more have only resulted when the people came out of their comfort zone, went out of their "normal" life and were put under stressful conditions.
After writing the idea, I surfed Pintrest for some inspiration. I came across Koi drawings and I was fascinated by their colors and sketches. I searched a little on their habitat and their characteristics and found out that they are an intelligent species, which suits the idea of my drawing. I then sketched them in my sketchbook and after brainstorming, I got an idea of how my drawing will be.
I sketched the drawing on the wall and then surfed the resources provided by NASA Space apps to choose the colors. The sun and its photos at different settings caught my attention. After all, stars (like our beloved sun) burn themselves (the gases that make them up) to shine. Burning is stressful indeed. This fits the theme of my drawing.
I bought bronze, gold, and black paints to mimic the sun's colors. I also got different sized paintbrushes, tape and paint thinner because the paints were oil-based.
The first drawing I made on the wall in 2018 was made using water-based paints, so the oil-based paints were hard to use at first, but eventually, I got better at using them. Time was very limited, and the paint had to dry so that I can add coats, add layers or paint adjacent areas, so I turned on the fan and put it on high speed directly in front of the wall. This posed another challenge, where the paints started to dry fast if it is too thin, not allowing me to fix mistakes as I paint. Nevertheless, I achieved the target, and I was able to finish the drawing in under 48 hours. That's a beautiful achievement to be proud of.
https://youtu.be/aNteJAs7UTo