Young artist wants local talent growth
Art produced by the region's youth is proudly on display at Rockingham Arts Centre as part of the headspace community art exhibition.
Warnbro 19-year-old Hannah Becsi was thrilled to be invited to attend this year's public event.
"Last year's exhibition was much smaller, but it's exciting to see how much it has grown," she said.
"It's great to the see the arts build down here - we don't have a huge art culture and I'd like to see more people get involved in art locally."
The former Living Waters Lutheran College student said art was the only subject she had enjoyed in school and was in the process of pursuing her passion further by studying a Diploma of Visual Arts at Central TAFE, with the intention of doing fine arts at Curtin University.
"I'm really interested in people's emotions and really like working on taboo subjects of anxiety and depression," she said.
"I like to get people connected and talking about the issues - provoking thoughts and getting people to reflect about their feelings, wellbeing and grasp what is really going on with themselves."
Ms Becsi said she had entered two pieces for the exhibition, the first a two-piece creation titled Peeled and the second a three-piece watercolour portrait titled Daniel.
She described Peeled as a minimal self-portrait drawn with permanent marker quickly on white paint, which was contrasted with a "bold, vibrant and confronting" acrylic painting containing "sickly fleshy tones".
"I was trying to create an overwhelming experience where people could decide for themselves how to interpret it and what emotions were provoked," she said.
"It's not peaceful and I wanted to see how it made people feel."
As for Daniel, she said the piece was a three-way portrait of her boyfriend, inspired by Egon Schiele, who was known for manipulating and exaggerating features.
Ms Becsi said she firmly believed art gave people self-awareness and it was healthy for people to express themselves and be in touch with their feelings.
The exhibition, which features works by 35 Rockingham artists, is open from 1pm-4pm on weekdays and from 10am-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
