DAHLIA ADO-IBRAHIM Meet the artist:

Everyone’s talented. That’s what parents and teachers often say, and it’s true. But not everyone takes their talents seriously. Let’s meet one of them, 11th grader Dahlia Ado-Ibrahim. This is her first year at WINS and she brings much to the table: academic inquisitiveness, appreciation of her cultural heritage, and the urge to create. Why?

Well we asked her, and got this in response:

Self expression is not easy or straightforward. In fact for most of us, finding the right words to describe the right feeling turns out to be a challenging thing, which is why most people use fashion, music, etc. For me, art was always my way of expression. Since I could remember, I always had an inclination to draw whenever I wanted to express myself, whether that be a negative or positive emotion. Over the years my art style has developed, becoming more and more personal. My current art style utilizes aspects considered absurd or ‘foreign’ and turning them into focal points. It’s about finding beauty in the ‘other’, expressing my creativity in a way that is individual. My art is not meant to show perfection and flawlessness. It’s meant to find beauty where normally you wouldn’t think to look. In other words, finding beauty in imperfection. My art has been a way to express how I wish to perceive what I deem as flaws in myself and others.