There are two types of freshmen: those who have an extensive, thought-out plan for the future and those who are thrown into this environment with no idea of what they want to accomplish aside from graduating. While this sounds like a negative, it’s actually an opportunity to explore various options and have the freedom to decide along the way.
Atlanta native Dianasakhu Banton-Perry is an art major at VCU who has yet to declare a concentration but is excited to explore her options. She has been interested in art her entire life, recalling that she’s always been good at drawing, and has been interested in getting better at other aspects of art.
“There are just so many things and I don’t know enough about them yet to be really sure,” she said. “I really like concept design as it relates to movies.”
She finds her inspiration from individual pictures or illustrators that she comes across. She’s attended various art shows in both Richmond and Atlanta. She’s also a fan of science fiction movies and is influenced by the concept design in those. Her current favorites are Mad Max and Interstellar.
“I watch way too much television and way too many movies. I’m that person that can recognize any celebrity. That’s probably why I like movie concept art so much,” she said.
VCU has one of the top art programs in the country, which is one of the reasons she chose to attend here. She applied to four other schools but VCU seemed like the right fit.
“My mom didn’t want me to go to a school that was exclusively art just in case I wanted to branch out,” she said. “I’m probably not going to but I agreed with her. It was a good idea.”
Since her high school only offered art classes up to level three, this is the first time she’s really been surrounded by so many artists.
“A lot of people consider it competition but you aren’t doing the same thing and even if you are you have different styles,” she said. “I find it in inspiring to see other people’s styles.”
Her own style is cartoony but it is gradually becoming more realistic. She specializes in drawing people but is attempting to branch out to be able to create images of landscapes and objects.
“I’m very confident in my style so I feel like even if someone is better than me, our styles are too different for it to even matter,” she said.
The piece she’s proudest of is a drawing she completed for her final. It was somewhat spontaneous but it turned out to be, in her opinion, the best drawing she’s ever done.
“I just knew that I wanted to have more than one person in it,” she said. The background was this sculpture that I saw of a giant glass metallic star by Frank Stella. I thought it was amazing and I wanted to incorporate that somehow.”
The way she posed the people started off in a sketch she did. It began with one person having their hand on the other person’s shoulder and then gradually moved to having the hand over the face.
“People kept telling me it looked religious but it isn’t,” she said.
Her planning process for her pieces is spontaneous, but she’s hoping to learn more about the planning process in her classes.
She’s currently anticipating a project in her time studio class involving playing a movie on a TV screen and painting the screen black. She also has to complete a self-portrait video, which she can’t physically be in unless she’s playing a persona.
“I’m not really sure how that’s going to go yet but we’ll see what happens,” she said.
We all find inspiration in different places. Whether it’s in pictures, films, or music we are all inspired by the content we are exposed to every day. It doesn’t matter how you’re getting inspired, as long as you’re getting inspired.