Euphoria

GRACE McLEOD

ARTIST STATEMENT

Artist's Statement: “Euphoria” depicts how teenagers should strive to be happy throughout the difficulties in high school.  The painting is completed on a school newspaper, where positive words and phrases were used in order to exemplify how peers on campus can aid this plight to happiness.  Often students become depressed from feelings of loneliness or unworthiness, yet the help from friends found at school can often lead to the surmounting of these sentiments.  Only black paint was used in order to illustrate how in high school, many consider themselves to be the only individual enduring hardships, yet in reality each person has an issue that is desired to be resolved.  The use of one color therefore provides a uniformity among a group that portrays how people are never truly alone—it remains possible to relate to and find solace in trusted others.  The use of a single color, allowing the newsprint to show through, additionally displays how the words which students say about a teenager can fully become how that individual is perceived by others, whether the words hold truth or not.   However, because the painting exhibits a girl laughing upon these words, it is suggested that teenagers should not take these comments to heart, as only the individual can truly understand and love his or herself by knowing the true identity that lies within.