This months edition: A Painting Scholarship rewards Cindy Yan’s decision to attend high school far away from her family.

In 2021, Cindy Yan earned a Scholarship in Painting at the conclusion of Year 12. This topped off a year in which she was also named the Most Innovative Senior Visual Artist at the Hamilton Girls' High School Arts Awards. She is aiming to expand her artistic credentials in 2022 by sitting Scholarship in Art Design.

Cindy Yan came to HGHS in Year 11 while her father was in New Zealand for work. When he returned home to China, she decided to stay and complete her high school education as an international student.

Cindy’s talent as a visual artist was quickly recognised by the Visual Art teachers and she was moved up to Level 2. That advancement allowed her to complete Level 3 painting while in Year 12 and freed up other options in Year 13.

“Cindy demonstrates grit, continuously pushing further. Her work habits are exemplary. She goes over and above in terms of quality and quantity of work. I admire Cindy's capacity to be simultaneously the deep thinker and the prolific creative. Her award of Scholarship in Painting is extremely well deserved,” explains Ms Claudia Avril, HGHS Visual Art teacher.

Cindy describes her submission as ‘an analogy showing an exotic fantasy world, through a narrative from darkness to light.’ She explores her own personality drawing inspiration from surrealist painter Remedios Varo’s work. Cindy explores the ‘parts of herself’ in the two worlds she created, using light, colour, symbolism and China’s Shanhaijing art to create two protagonists to represent parts of herself in an alien world. The resulting art is hauntingly beautiful and frightening.

“This work pushed me right out of my comfort zone,” explains Cindy. “I feel that in the past I was simply practising by copying other artists’ work, imitating styles and techniques of others. But in this process, for the first time, I was creating unique images in my mind and then putting them down on paper. When it comes to the representation of me, I feel like I made some progress but some parts need to continue to develop and I look forward to doing that through Art Design this year.”

Being an international student during a global pandemic and producing academic results like Cindy’s is no small thing. She hasn’t seen her family in over two years. “I have great friends here and I have goals and I just concentrate on that. HGHS has provided me with the freedom to explore my creativity through art. Those are choices I wouldn’t have back in China where high school is far more structured around more traditional subjects.”

Cindy hopes to pursue a career in the arts through designing for film and is yet undecided where she might attend university.

This article was written by Arts Co-ordinator, Margot Rawlings. Thank you for your care and efforts with this great story.