ArtworxTO’s Spotlight Emerging Artists program has selected 52 emerging Toronto-based artists to shine a digital spotlight on – one every week for the entire year. We are very excited to share that among those spotlighted is 2021 Fine Arts Studio graduate, Sidia Atabales-Schnitzler!
Sidia says she first found out about this opportunity from Program Coordinator, Lisa Binnie, who forwarded it along to Fine Arts Studio graduates. As part of the submission process, artists were required to make a one-minute video discussing what they do and what their goals are. “Trying to fit everything concisely in one minute was tricky, so I typed out a little script to go off of beforehand. Filmed a video of me talking, and in Final Cut Pro, intercut it with some B-roll of my studio wall.” Sidia explains.
After receiving the email letting her know her submission was selected, she says, “I was really surprised when I got the email because I put nearly the whole application together with one to two hours before the deadline. The script took the longest and was prepared before. Everything else was on the day. I was most excited about the mentorship aspect and curious as to how it would play out.”
Click the image to watch Sidia’s Spotlight.
So far, Sidia explains the entire experience of being selected for the ArtworxTO Spotlight has been cooler than she imagined. “A week or two ago, I met up with my assigned mentor who specializes in the goals I spoke about in the application video, which were related to putting on shows. We met up at a show he curated; it was behind a purple door, down some stairs, in an alleyway. It’s less sketchy than it sounds, like a little hidden gem. Him explaining how that place came to be, along with other projects, really opened my eyes to what can happen.”
EXPERIENCE IN THE FINE ARTS STUDIO PROGRAM AT CENTENNIAL
Sidia enrolled in the Fine Arts Studio program right after graduating high school. “I wasn’t exactly set on a specific career when researching post-secondary courses. But I knew it would be under the arts umbrella. I thought that through completing a more flexible course, then I would find my strengths and see which path would work best,” she explains. “The [Fine Arts Studio] program stood out to me because of the emphasis on how hands-on it would be, and they weren’t wrong! I figured the more ‘doing’, the easier it would be to see what I liked to do.”
Through an experiential learning framework, Sidia explains that the program's setup is accurate to the industry and how most artists work. “You’re balancing multiple pieces and projects at once, and consistently dissecting your process. It involves lots of creating, writing, research, investigating, and asking questions. For most projects, there is a PowerPoint component that follows a certain structure. It helps walk you through each of these things in a digestible manner. So, by the time you are on your own, you’re more comfortable talking about your own work. Which you do a lot.”
Accordingly, some of Sidia’s favourite parts about the program were working with her colleagues and professors, as she shares, “It was like being put in a big group project except just about every person is passionate and just as excited as you.” She adds, “Everyone has their own thing going on, so there are no competitive attitudes in the air. I loved seeing everybody working in the studio and how differently we all could interpret the same assignment or the same subject.”
KEY LESSONS FROM THE PROGRAM
Sidia shares that some of the key lessons that stand out to her from the program include:
1. Akin to a 5-year-old – keep asking yourself ‘why?’. From why are you attracted to this particular subject, to why do you like this singular film frame, and so on. I still do this all the time.
2. Working on multiple things at once and having goals set up for the future keeps the momentum going. I’m already the type to have too many ideas so that just works out smoothly anyways.
3. It’s better to just go through with a concept and reflect afterwards than be overly critical from the start and scrapping it. This wasn’t necessarily told to me explicitly by my professors, but I learned it through their attitudes. Just about every idea I spoke to them about was a ‘yes’!
ADVICE FOR FUTURE FINE ARTS STUDIO STUDENTS
For those interested in pursuing this program, Sidia says it is important to prepare to get really immersed in the work. She adds, “Don’t neglect everything else, like your wellbeing or social life, and, for sure, take needed breaks when possible! But you will get back what you put in. Instructors also frequently offer or forward opportunities, so I’d take advantage of those when you can. And lessons that make you feel hesitant or slightly confused as to their relevance can always come up again in future work. So, it is good to experiment a lot, especially in the first year. You can learn so much from getting out of your comfort zone, and that doesn’t mean you can’t hone in on the craft you bring into the program. Keep that balance because everything eventually comes together.”
Sidia’s art currently focuses on primarily chalk pastel drawings, and she explains that the subject matter for her pieces can range from “figures to parts of human hair mushing together, landscapes, interiors, and playing with collaging them together, … details from my carpet or patterns taken from medieval manuscripts.” She adds, “When I’m not drawing, I’ll be working with alternative photography, like cyanotypes, or video and performance.”
As for how she sees her art transforming as she progresses through her journey as an artist and if she is interested in trying new methods, she shares, “I’ve previously worked with a plethora of varying media, but it all was quite separate. I used those two years [in the Fine Arts Studio program] as an opportunity to really go all out and try things I’ve never touched before. There was a point where I was collaborating with my older brother, who works in sound engineering, and we made an ambient type sound piece. I wanted eventually for all of it to be homogeneous, [with] characteristics from each medium to culminate and influence each other, resulting in something that stands on its own. But drawing has been my longest relationship and one true love. So, I am still drawing, just now in a different way.”
To find out more about Sidia and discover more of her art, you can check out her website: www.sidiaart.com Instagram: @sidiaaah
Congratulations, Sidia, on such an outstanding accomplishment!
Article by: Alexandra Few
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