The Point of No Return

Hi! I'm Neha and I did those really tiny black, red and white drawings at ArtExpress. This is pretty much about:

The 5 things I learnt whilst doing my major work 

(because I like reflection)

• Creating a body of work takes planning.
  

I’m a big fan of spontaneity – so big in fact that I was originally going to just chuck ink on canvas and draw around it (it’s called automatism). Obviously that didn’t work out and composition saved my life halfway through the HSC when I realised that I’d spent most of the year scribbling in my VAPD with nothing to show for it.

• Change is your best friend.
  

Waiting for inspiration to hit me on the head wasn’t working (a euphemism for bludging during first term) so I decided to sketch out ideas in tiny little squares. By doing something as simple as that, I quickly found a new sense of direction and just took it from there.

• Sometimes things don’t go according to plan
  

At the school exhibition, one of my drawings fell off the wall and the frame received a massive dent. Instead of having a hysterical hissy fit, I just said- “Yeah, this dent right here adds character!”

• Hard work pays off
  

Again at the school exhibition, someone said to me, “You know, you could have spent half the effort, just taken photographs like I did and passed.” Yeah, because when you’re passionate enough about something, you want to accomplish the bare minimum and pass, right? Doubt it. Put the effort in, whatever medium(s) you choose, and people will recognise it.

• It’s nice to have support
  

I used to carry my drawings around school in this long tube (the kind you can get from the post office) and randomly people would stop me and ask to see how much I’d done so far. Yeah, it was an effort to roll out my work (sometimes in the rain!) and roll it back again, but it was worth it when people appreciated all the little details.

What’s my work about you ask? It’s all in those details.

On a side note: ArtExpress was amazing. It was really humbling to have my work displayed because the standard was so good. If your work was a)colourful b)inventive c)a drawing - then I loved it. Also, everyone was so friendly - definitely a night to remember.