Thinking of a Theme

     One of the first things you will likely be asked to do when you begin your time as an IB art student is to develop a theme of which all of your work will be centralized around and grow from. The theme in this sense is obviously very important to your work, and the sooner you figure out what yours is going to be the sooner you can start "making art". Right? 
     This is what I thought when I started the program, I was told to think of a theme - something specific yet general enough to give me room to work with many concepts and platforms of art. I soon realized that this was extremely difficult. This thing that I had to choose at the beginning of grade eleven would dictate what art I could pursue up until the time I graduated. My thought process went a little something like this....
1. Random broad ideas of no great value 
2. Random specific ideas of no great value (for a month I thought my theme would be birds .... I don't even like birds that much, they kind of scare me)
3. Giving up and just doing some raw "uncensored" art (this is important)
4. Gradually figuring out what I like (and don't like) to do
5. Assigning a name 
     That name would end up being my theme, something I am now almost 100% pleased with, but as you can see I wasted a lot of time in the beginning trying to find words to describe the art I would go on to create.
     This was all wrong - so learn from my lesson! Instead of spending the first couple of months trying to find a theme, a title to define the work you would later create, let your theme come to light and expose itself as you experiment with different art forms and find your niche. This isn't a math question where logic rules and you have defined steps to get you to your answer and it's not an English paper where you can brainstorm what you want to say based on prior knowledge. This is art; something that looks like the easiest subject in the IB hexa-thing but is probably the hardest because of the amount of motivation, exploration, trust, talent, and perseverance the student has to have (not to mention the personal development they have to go through). 
     Another thing to remember is that you need to create ten to fifteen works, while that may seem like a lot it really isn't in the grand scheme of things - so don't blow the situation out of proportion. Take time to explore different ideas before you settle down with one, and always know that you are in control of where you take your theme as it grows and develops over the course of a year or two. 

    Before I go I thought it would be only right to disclose my personal theme with you as it currently stands: Patchwork and Pattern.