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Eye of the Beholder

How does this award-winning artist explore a personal experience?

How does Amelia pose questions about standards of beauty?

An event as simple as a haircut can inspire Amelia Kim to create artwork like the example above. Amelia made it when she was a senior at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics in Vancouver, Washington. “Telling your story using a visual language is so special and healing,” says Amelia, 18. A freshman this fall at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, Amelia plans to study animation so she can continue to tell stories.

Amelia Kim

What inspired this award-winning work?

I had just cut my long hair very short. I was feeling androgynous and experiencing the stigma of not looking traditionally feminine for the first time in my life. It made me realize how much pressure there is on girls to look pretty. I wanted to explore how much our appearance affects our identity.


How did you develop the composition?

Two charcoal drawings I created of myself with long hair sparked the idea. I used the blind contour technique where you sketch yourself quickly while looking into a mirror. You can’t lift your charcoal or look at the paper while you draw. I loved the raw observational look of those drawings and how they reflected my own distorted body image. I added a realistic image of myself with my short hair in the center to create a strong focal point that would draw the viewer in. I also added mirrors and daffodils as motifs as a reference to the Greek myth of Narcissus. He constantly looked at himself and was obsessed with his image. The motifs made my piece more interesting and reinforced the idea of how we obsess over the way we look.

What did you want the viewer to walk away with?

I wanted the viewer to relate to the image. Everyone feels insecure at times. I wanted to give the viewer something to think about, a sort of call to action: Why do we need these standards of beauty, and why do we spend so much time worrying about them?


Do you have advice for aspiring artists like yourself?

Create art based on observation so you gain the technical tools to say the things you want to say. Also, take time to learn who you are. Try to be in touch with your life experiences and feelings. To grow as an artist, you have to grow as a person. If you have all the technical skills in the world but you haven’t done enough to develop your character, your art will feel empty. 

Amelia Kim won a Gold Medal for her digital artwork in the 2021 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

To find out more about this program, visit artandwriting.org

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