IC senior trip, art workshop with andrew McNaughton

This year we the senior class had our senior trip! We all went down to the Kenyan coast and stayed at a luxury resort on Watamu beach. The senior class was grouped into different strands. We were a small group of 8 that were a branch off the creativity strand. Within our group we would spend two solid days receiving intellectual advice on art and also had to take part in producing pieces of art as an end result of the workshop. The workshop was to take place in Andrew McNaughton's house. Andrew is an artist that is based in Watamu he uses found marine debris as a way of creating visually powerfully pieces that convey his strong message about conserving marine life, one flip flop at a time.
Andrew was kind enough to give his work space to us for these few days, he allowed us to take supplies from his very extensive range of marine debris. From Hippo teeth to washed up flip flops. In these two days I worked for hours in an attempt at trying to create a visually stimulating piece that would also convey some form of message (I still hadn't decided what). Through this we would then use these pieces in our art exhibition finals that will be held on April.
The experience was one i will never forget. Andrew is quite a character and i was able to witness first hand how a flamboyant and extroverted artist would look like. Something i would hope to aspire to one day. The finished pieces were all in my opinion quite powerful and although i had been skeptical at first i was proud of my art piece. The experience was good to take back so that i could use it in the way i would further conduct myself in the IB art class. It also helped come to grasps with how i should always plan as it would give me more structure to my creative process and allow me to present a powerful image rather than simply an aesthetically pleasing image. I also learned of how to use the material i am given with in a creative way. This experience was truly rewarding and now whenever i think back to that fully tanned old man a wave of nostalgia hits me.