St Catherine’s School’s renowned Visual Arts program has been acknowledged by the shortlisting of Year 12 students Stella Fry, Charlotte Zelouf and Amelia Chambers for Top Designs and Lulu (Katherine) Murrell for Top Arts. Top Designs and Top Arts are part of the VCE Season of Excellence and as such curates, celebrates and exhibits quality arts and designs from VCE students from across Victoria. To be shortlisted, student work must be of an excellent standard and address the VCE assessment criteria in innovative and individual ways.

At St Catherine’s School, a rigorous and individual Visual Arts program from the Early Learning Centre to Year 12 supports VCE students to work autonomously and skilfully, developing their individual art and design practices.

St Catherine’s 2019 Co-Captain of Art and Design, Lulu Murrell’s etchings explored the age-old theme of mortality, alluding to 17^th century vanitas paintings through weighty depictions of skulls. Lulu’s lively and expressive mark making belies the sombre subject matter, causing tension between life and death. Lulu spent hours perfecting her printmaking techniques, her studio process was thoroughly documented in her visual diary which is an important component of the Studio Arts study design and the selection criteria for both Top Arts and Top Designs.

Lulu Murrell’s artworks explored the theme of mortality.

Stella Fry focused on an infographic and poster series for the Country Fire Authority (CFA) for her Visual Communication Design portfolio. Stella’s designs were well developed through an in-depth design process including meeting with the CFA. In the 2019 VCE Art Show, Stella’s posters included photographs of burnt objects that touched many viewers and reinforced the power of visual language.

Similarly to Stella’s evocative images, Charlotte Zelouf’s photographic visual communications about the effects of panic attacks were powerful. In addition, Charlotte designed an interactive educational tool targeted at secondary school students. Prior to designing her communications, thorough research into mental health was conducted, including speaking to our School Counsellor, Ms Amelia King, about the causes of panic attacks.

Amelia Chambers focused on the impact the fashion industry has on the environment. As a result of her extensive design process, Amelia produced a fashion garment created from recycled materials that she photographed to produce a complementary lookbook. Her innovative use of materials pertinent to her design focus was extended into an infographic about the effect of the fashion industry.

Congratulations to Lulu, Stella, Charlotte and Amelia for their excellent work in the Visual Arts in 2019. We wish them the best of luck for the final selection.