When teacher Annie Mellino opened Year 11 student Gabriella Vittorio’s folio and found the progress of her digital drawing, she knew she had something special.
And so did the judges of the MacKillop Art Exhibition, who made it clear through their email to Notre Dame College that “student Gabriella Vittorio is strongly recommended to attend”.
The MacKillop Art Exhibition is an annual event that showcases students’ work from Year 3 to Year 12 from across the Sandhurst Diocese.
On Friday, November 11 at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Bendigo, local artists and university art lecturers announced Gabriella the winner of the VCE or VCAL Art Award for her digital print titled Even If The World Was On Fire.
“I was very surprised that I won the actual prize itself, but I was pretty proud and my mum was pretty proud,” Gabriella said.
“It was a big achievement for me and it made me think about taking art seriously.”
Notre Dame senior photography and studio arts teacher Miss Mellino described her student as modest, despite Gabriella being the first Notre Dame student to ever win the award.
“It was such a different piece, which I think is what made it stand out to the judges,” Miss Mellino said.
“I’ve been trying to get the kids to think outside the box of mediums, and this year they’ve jumped on that and used their skills, with me as more of a facilitator instead of just directing them.”
Gabriella’s artwork Even If The World Was On Fire was an appropriation of an oil painting originally by Alia El-Bermani.
In digital form, Gabriella kept the composition of the painting, but changed aspects to dramatically alter its meaning.
“My aim was to explore the ideas of how society has manipulated younger generations to fixate on how they are perceived rather than viewing the greater problems of the world, which are happening simultaneously,” she said.
“It’s as though the desensitised girl depicted in the artwork would overlook those facing torment even if the world was on fire.”
With her senior year fast approaching, Gabriella’s future is full of possibilities.
“I’m thinking university and doing some sort of design course, either interior design, or architecture and designing houses. Something along those lines,” she said.
For now, she’s just going to keep “doing (her) thing”, but who knows, the streets of Shepparton may be lined with Gabriella’s designs one day.
Voting for Even If The World Was On Fire for the People’s Choice Award is now closed.
The MacKillop Art Exhibition remains available for online viewing via the Catholic Education Sandhurst website.