This year we ran a creative visual competition for all of our students. The theme of the competition was ‘A Season of Hope’. We asked all students to submit an entry of any kind that was visual and represented our theme, along with a description of their entry and why they chose that particular piece. We were absolutely blown away by the entries that we received and we are delighted to see so much creative talent, in all different forms, from our students.
Our judges found it tough to decide on one winner for the competition but, after much deliberation, decided on one.
We would like to extend a massive congratulations to the winner of our ‘A Season of Hope’ competition winner: Preslava Vassileva.
Preslava’s entry shows just how talented our students are. She not only illustrated all of her entry but she also handcrafted the book that holds the illustrations. The book tells a beautiful story of hope and friendship. Here is how she describes the book, the story, and her inspiration:
I illustrated, lined, and coloured in each page and then I hand-bound them together by sewing them, as well as making a cover for it from scratch and decorating that too.
I worked really extensively on this project over the past few weeks and I am very proud of it. I think it suits the theme well. It depicts the story of someone who is forced to spend Christmas alone this year due to the pandemic, but instead of letting it get to them, they decide to spend all of their newfound free time on creating a handmade gift for their close friend. My inspiration came from my personal life and inability to spend time with so many of the people who are valuable to me, particularly my best friend who lives on the other side of Dublin, and the fact that I have been finding hope and inspiration in making things for them until I can eventually see them again. The “hope” this season is the promise that life will go back to normal, and we’ll all treasure our time with our loved ones even more.
Some of my favourite details in my storybook are the accurate moon phases for the days of December that are depicted, the timeline represented by the clock and calendar on the left page of every illustration, and the final reveal of the present that the friend received.
Below you can see a video of Preslava showing off her entry and the story that it contains. Congratulations again to our competition winner Preslava Vassileva.