The stimulus for this piece was 'box'; the left image is an A3 acrylic painting, and the right is a collage I made from my photos of a collaborative sculpture we made as a class. We used string and tape to explore the ideas of confinement and definition; I wanted to highlight this by juxtaposing the intricate, delicate form of the string 'web' against the bold shapes created by the tape, examining the relationship between rigidity and fluidity in the context of a 'box'. The acrylic painting is abstract and conceptual - I wanted my audience to recognise the ambiguity of how a 'box' is defined.

This A4 acrylic painting was my second piece for the 'box' project, focused around medical imagery and the 'box' of the human ribcage. A box is associated with secrecy, privacy and protection; in a medical context, this privacy is violated and the subject is divorced from their humanity, seen only as a box to examine. I used the visual metaphor of the saw intending to shock my audience; I chose to work in greyscale to draw parallels to the visual contrast of x-ray and CT imagery. However, I wanted to work in a more realistic style rather than emulating medical imaging, in order to engage my audience and make them feel connected to the human form of the ribs, to better evoke a sense of violation and discomfort.

The stimulus for this piece was 'word' - for this project I chose to focus on the theme of heritage language loss (ie. people who speak a language as children, but lose it due to cultural or personal reasons). The text, in German, translates to, "What is wrong with you? Can't you speak?" - I wanted to give the appearance of letters floating away, while the hands reach to save them, emulating the feeling of forgetting your native language. The background is made from torn-up sections of studies about heritage language loss - creating a contrast between a deeply personal experience and the impersonal scientific literature.

My second piece for the 'word' project, an A3 acrylic painting of my father which I turned into a collage. I wanted to focus more on the cultural themes related to the topic of heritage language loss; my father's face is distorted, but recognisable, alluding to both a loss of cultural ties and the way many heritage speakers still feel a deep connection to their native language even after losing the ability to speak it. I aimed to communicate a sense of grief, loss of identity, and explore the rift that occurs when cultural connections are severed through language loss.

This was an A4 acrylic study I did before starting the Level 4 Foundation course, aiming to develop my practical skills and attention to detail. The flower was one that grew in my garden; I worked from both photos and direct observation. The dappled effect in the background highlights the flower to the viewer and makes the shrubbery in the background appear as though out of focus.

This was one of the pieces for my 'outreach' project, focusing on hostile architecture and homelessness. The painting is a segment of a collage I made from photos of hostile architecture in my own city, such as barred benches, spikes and tilted surfaces. I wanted to retain hostile elements such as jarring angles while visually communicating starkness and urbanisation in a more abstract way, leading to the use of greyscale and heavy contrast.

This is another painting from my 'outreach' project, with a similar intention to the previous example; here I tried to visually represent urban elements such as pavements, benches, and concrete, while working in an abstract style, to give a sense of urbanisation without explicitly depicting it. The angles oppose each other throughout the piece, meeting at a central point, which both communicates hostility and disorder and draws the viewer's eye to the bench in the lower half of the painting. Bold areas of tone contrast against more realistic sections of the painting and make it feel more conceptual; I was largely inspired by the paintings of Moholy-Nagy throughout the entire project.

This was the first in a series of oil paintings for my 'waste' project, exploring the concept of wasted potential and how it relates to nonconformity. I filmed myself applying makeup and removing it, then used frames from the video as a reference for three paintings. I wanted to portray myself conforming to societal norms, so used makeup and 'feminine' clothing to represent this; I also paid attention to minor details, such as my eye appearing slightly pink as if I'd injured myself while applying the makeup, showing that conformity comes at a price.

I wanted to communicate a sense of movement throughout the series of paintings, and depict a fluid process of destruction; the painting style becomes more rough and painterly as the 'mask' of conformity is removed.

This was the final piece in my series of oil paintings, showing the 'end point' in the destruction of conformity. By societal standards, the potential for beauty demonstrated in the first painting has been wasted; on the other hand, my face looks more recognisable, with brighter eyes and more freedom of movement. This was my first attempt at using oil paints, and I was still learning the best way to use colour and brush strokes; this development is quite evident throughout the series.

I created this graphite drawing before starting the Foundation course - I wanted to explore themes of body dysmorphia and societal beauty standards. It is deliberately unclear who is holding the scissors, alluding to the way beauty standards can be internalised to the point where one perpetuates harm subconsciously.

This A4 acrylic painting was focused around developing my practical skills, as well as communicating atmosphere and starkness. The contrast between the rigid silhouette of the pylon tower and the moving, natural form of the smoke was intended to suggest a conflict between human and industrial.