The Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance held its first ever Top Talents Awards Gala and Dinner last Friday, June 18. Top Talents was created to recognize and celebrate the achievements of Tamil youth aged 17-30 by recognizing and rewarding talented youth among the community with an award and a $500 bursary. Its aim was to motivate youth to achieve greater success by recognizing and rewarding those youth who have contributed to society and are positive role models for their peers.
Today we will look at the profile of the winner of the CTYA Visual Arts Award, Mr. Prashanth Selvakumar.
“I feel that artwork is not something only to admire. Every artwork has a purpose and I feel that it is important to represent different cultures, races in the world and to bring them together in a visual language that anyone can understand called art.” – Prashanth Selvakumar (Personal Statement Excerpt)
The Top Talents Visual Arts Award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding ability, and achievement in visual arts. Decisions are made based on the applicant’s portfolio, personal statement and references by a panel of judges.
“A picture is worth 1000 words,” this quote is often said to refer to how powerful pictures can be in describing events, people, and places. Talented artists are able to tell stories through their work, and our award winner, Mr. Prashanth Selvakumar’s does such. From a young age, Prashanth has realized that his paintbrush would be his favorite tool; at the age of 5, he received an award from the City of Toronto for a building he drew using acrylic paint. His passion for art has not since withered.
Prashanth has a genuine interest and enthusiasm towards visual arts. Through his work, he has explored various concepts, styles and media. His work exhibits creativity and originality. Through his artwork, this Prashanth is able to tell stories, and represent different cultures, thereby making his artwork universal, and personally touching. Prashanth uses a high degree of symbolism in his pieces, where he tries to relate the piece to the viewer.
Prashanth is an active member of the Art Club and Student Activity Council at Pickering High School. He has used his artistic abilities in his Musical Theater Class where he has designed a $5000- set for the musical “Into the Woods. He designed the posters, tickets and program for his high school musical performance last year as well. He has also done landscaping projects budgeting at $10,000 – all while being a high school student. He is also involved within his high school student council where he is the Minister of Publicity. His job involves creating posters, and advertisements for school events. His involvement with the artistic community at Pickering High School has been recognized, and he has been awarded the Arts Award of Pickering High School.
He is very motivated, dedicated, and is committed to preserving and fostering artistic talents. He is pursuing a career as an architect, where he can best use his talents and abilities as a visual artist. He has currently been accepted into a highly competitive architectural program at the University of McGill and Carleton. His hard work, and commitment to pursuing arts as a career makes him an ideal recipient for this award.
“ He is always receptive to the challenge and exploaration of various concepts, styles and media. As a result, he maintains an A average on all assignments, studio projects and tests. ….There is a unique originality to Prashanth’s artwork, as he is strongly influenced by his family heritage and Tamil background. This is an individual who, in the future, will surely provide strong leadership and will be committed to preserving and fostering a multi-cultural society.” – Marilyn Moroz, Visual Arts High School Teacher at Pickering High School (Nominator)
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