Watercolor artwork and story by Praharshita - Watercolor Academy Art Competition entry

Story and artwork from Praharshita

Watercolor artwork by Praharshita - Pensive Feline

I am a PhD student in Information Systems. I have been dealing with depression and anxiety for years and have found art as a means of expression and processing emotions. I have sometimes found myself drawing or painting things that I understand the meaning of only after I've finished and really considered the whole painting.

I am struggling with the basic foundations due to lack of time I can dedicate to this skill. Having a well curated professional course will help me learn things that will make be better at expressing and bringing forth images that will better help me understand the world.

There is a common phrase in the academic world: "Writing is thinking". I find that "Painting is seeing". Without acknowledging the elements of reality in their abstract forms, it is harder to recognise a phenomena and then study it. I have found a lot of social science researchers use stick figure drawing to explain to themselves or model behaviours. I think of learning this skill as expanding my vocabulary. The better I am at drawing, hopefully, the better I'll get at capturing the details of things and people.

I want people to vote for me because I am persistent at trying to learn and imbibe. I think the distinction between science and art is too strictly drawn. I am inspired by how M.C.Escher brings mathematics into art. I hope to learn how to bring art into my science and science communication to enhance human understanding.

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