Bella, a fine arts graduate from Lasalle, turned her love for graphic novels and video arts into a fulfilling career as Education Liaison at Eyeyah. Her journey, from growing up in Saudi Arabia to embracing art as a form of self-expression, proves that creativity and confidence can thrive in any field.
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00:00My dissertation was about how art has no meaning and doesn't make sense.
00:04I was going through a very nihilistic phase of life.
00:08My name is Bella. I used to study fine arts at LaSalle,
00:12specialising in graphic novel and video arts, and now I'm the education liaison at IELTS.
00:22So my whole life, I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.
00:27But the whole time, my dad kept telling me that the first thing I did before I
00:31talked or walked was use a pencil, and I kept drawing circles on a piece of paper.
00:37And he was always very proud of that. And I think when I grew up,
00:40I used drawing as well as a form of escape.
00:44I grew up in Saudi Arabia, lived there from the ages of 4 to 17.
00:49I just felt very lost growing up there. Even though my friends there were amazing,
00:54the school there was great, I felt safe.
00:57By the feeling of being an outcast or being out of place,
01:01and growing up in a country that's not necessarily my parents' home,
01:05I didn't really have any places that I could ground myself.
01:09So I think I kind of used creativity and art as a form of escape for me to cope with myself.
01:24I didn't have any expectations coming to LaSalle. I was just very excited
01:30to kind of be surrounded by different creatives.
01:33I was very excited to learn new techniques, learn how to paint, how to draw, how to print make.
01:38Yeah, when coming to school, I was a little bit crazy.
01:42So in diploma, I majored in graphic novel, because I always enjoyed telling stories and
01:50writing stories, and I was really into comics at the time.
01:53So in diploma, it was a wonderful time because I had a lot of time to play and explore.
01:59I explored different kinds of stop-motion animation, and I enjoyed that.
02:04But in degree, I was going through a lot emotionally, and I was illustrating these
02:10creatures and cartoon characters as a form of coping mechanism,
02:14trying to deal with the shit I was going through in life.
02:19But the issue with that is that a lot of lecturers always ask me,
02:22what is your work about?
02:23And I could never really tell them exactly what it was about, because I too didn't know what it was.
02:29And that kind of created a dispute between us.
02:33And a lot of lecturers thought I was lazy because I didn't know how to explain my work,
02:37which is not true because I was doing the work.
02:39I didn't know how to make sense of the words I was putting out to relate it to my artwork.
02:44And I only realised after I graduated because I went through therapy.
02:49But there was this one lecturer called Guo Liang, who really put a lot of effort into
02:55trying to understand where I was coming from.
02:58And he always checked up how I was feeling, and he always gave me a lot of
03:03inputs into what he thought my work was about.
03:06So it was very therapeutic, and I'm very thankful for him,
03:09because he also advised me to kind of like, don't think so much about the end product.
03:17Don't think so much about how you think the audience will react to it,
03:20or how your lecturers will think to it.
03:22Just create just for yourself.
03:26And I love that.
03:34I think after I graduated LaSalle, I tried to get into the art scene.
03:38But for me, I was just not into that world.
03:40I was not into that life.
03:42Even after graduating, I was just very lost.
03:45At the time, it was time for me to get a big girl job.
03:47And then one of my old lecturers actually,
03:49he asked me whether I was interested in being a substitute art teacher for preschool.
03:55And I just fell in love with it straight away,
03:58because kids are the most honest people that you can ever meet.
04:02And they don't care if you don't like their work, you know?
04:06They just create works because they like it.
04:08And then you want to share it with you,
04:10because they get very excited with what they can do.
04:13And I just fell in love with that energy.
04:21I felt like working with children was very healing.
04:24And all the children that I taught,
04:26they were so positive and energetic.
04:29And when teaching them about new art techniques,
04:31it can be very tiring.
04:32They can throw tantrums,
04:34but they only throw tantrums because they're unable to explain themselves.
04:39And I related to that 100%.
04:40I was like, I know what you're getting at, child.
04:42I'm here to help you.
04:47Yeah, so I've been at AYA for about three months now.
04:49So it's a very new job.
04:50I'm still learning the ropes of everything.
04:53And it's very fun.
04:54So I'm more of a content designer.
04:56I am the one trying to engage the kids through our workshops.
05:00I'm still a creative, but not an artist.
05:05I would say that my bad experiences in art school
05:11really did help me with trying to help children understand how to create art.
05:17And because I didn't want them to create works for the sake of creating work,
05:22I tried to focus on the process.
05:23I tried to focus on the art making, you know,
05:26and how the colors that they use
05:28and how the drawings that they're doing make them feel.
05:31Because I felt like that was lost.
05:33My art education, I wanted them to explore and express themselves
05:38and use it as a way to just have fun.
05:43It's important to kind of like allow people to explore their creative mind,
05:47you know, because in a world that's very rational and logical,
05:51creativity is lost.
05:52And it helps you think in a different mindset.
05:54You know, nothing is truly black and white.
05:57But you don't necessarily have to be in art school,
06:02you know, in a tertiary art school setting to learn that.
06:05But it is very important to have an art education
06:07and have a foundational understanding of what arts is.
06:11Who's that guy?
06:12I think it's Picasso who said it.
06:14Anyone can be an artist.
06:16Even kids are artists.
06:18And it's true, like everyone has a creative mind.
06:21Everyone has a left brain, you know.
06:24You don't have to go to art school to become an artist.
06:27Just do what you like.
06:29To a little child who wants to become an artist,
06:30I'm just like, just go for it, you know.
06:32Just don't lose that childlike sense of wonder when you're creating.
06:37Just do what you enjoy.
06:38Don't let anyone stop you, you know.
06:41And I do wish them all the best because being an artist is,
06:45I think it's a good job if you do it well.
06:48And it's a very giving job.
06:50And it's a very rewarding job.
06:52I don't like to take myself too seriously, you know,
06:55like life has too many responsibilities.
06:58So why not just have fun with it, you know.
07:01Okay, cut.
07:03Okay.