Nineteen year old Ella Konrad has become a top ten finalist for a painting that represents LGBTI equality, whilst promoting diversity.
The piece, named ‘Shades of Grey’, was entered into this year’s Hypervision Youth Art Festival which is held at Midland Gate Shopping Centre.
Controversy was generated by Konrad when she painted the piece in year 12 of her Catholic School; when asked about negative responses she said – ‘Not to my face no, there was a little bit conversation between teachers, but I did also get a few handshakes because of the artistry of it.’
Konrad went on to explain the meaning behind the painting, describing prejudice that occurs based on our appearance or gender.
‘The painting is about the discrimination of same-sex relationships, the actual girl who featured in it is a young lesbian friend of mine who often gets mistaken for a young boy, I used her as a representation of how people judge so instantly just on appearances.
‘The tessellations next to her are formed from a triangle; the arms are in positions that represent an embrace, which in turn represent a relationship, and loving one another. The arms developed are between male and male, male and female, and female and female. The only difference between each couple is the muscle tone just to emphasise there are only minor differences between same-sex and heterosexual relationships’.
The theme of diversity stemmed from Konrad growing up with a gay dad, surrounded by LGBTI friends, ‘I’ve just never seen a problem with it, they’re just the same as any other person.’
When asked about whether the piece could be viewed as a campaign for gay rights she said ‘It could be, it wasn’t intended that way, it was mainly intended to express to people my feelings about it’.
You can view Ella Konrad’s work as well as other local art at the Hypervision Youth Art Festival from August 8-19.
