The Ubuntu Visual Arts Grant at the St. Andrew High School for Girls was presented to recipient Genesis-Joy Madden on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.

Genesis-Joy Madden is a recent graduate of St. Andrew High School for Girls. Driven by her love for excellence and art, she is in constant pursuit of ways to improve her craft, which helped her in receiving this very award. Her goals include becoming a successful animator and continuing to grow spiritually, emotionally and mentally.

In her submission, entitled “Finally” Genesis-Joy displayed courage as she spoke about the journey of introspection she embarked on as she created her artwork. She stepped outside of herself and ended up finding her own artistic path.

The explanation of her piece in her own words:

“During my entire art journey throughout high school, I constantly struggled with a feeling of discomfort, as though my art wasn’t truly mine. Ideas for pieces would be born in vibrant colour, with shades, hues and textures stretching beyond borders I had never crossed, but was very eager to.

They would spin to life as, piece by piece, I added additional parts that made it uniquely mine, until it stood, in living colour at the forefront of my mind. Yet time and time again without fail, whether it was through an inability to execute it, adjustments being made through teachers guidance, or my own fear to step so far into something I had never known, those ideas I had tenderly thought into existence remained stillborn.

Through either being changed altogether, altered to the point of being unrecognisable or a tiny change that took away from what it was truly meant to be, it was no longer ‘mine’. However this piece, over which I had free creative reign for our final project, came to me at a time of deep reflection. After 7 years of failing to reach my own expectations, I finally had the courage to stretch beyond the borders I had lived within and into that land of colours, compositions, and styles that were previously so far out of reach. This piece means the most to me because it represents that first step into the discovery of who I can be as an artist, an apology to the young artist who was stifled for so long, and finally reaching wholeheartedly for something that can truly be mine.”

~ Genesis-Joy Madden

We wish Genesis-Joy nothing but success in her future endeavours and she continues to state her claim on the world as a young creative.