Shanya Buultjens Yr12

Before we went to the workshop, Ms. Mochrie, our art teacher, showed us what the previous class had done the day before. Initially, they did didn't seem very interesting to me, so I was slightly cynical about attending this workshop.

When we go there, we went to the art gallery and one of Khaldoun's fellow artists, Sana, talked to us about her work. Sana had been working with Khaldoun for more than 6 years, and she told us about her inspirations, her thoughts and gave us plenty of advice. I enjoyed what she had to say, because it helped open up my mind. She didn't title her work because she wanted people to look at what she had done and feel what they wanted to feel, not to be prompted to feel what the title had said. She also said that she communicated through her art.

Afterwards we painted outside on the beach with a partner on a piece of paper using two different colours and only our hands to move the paint about. We used whatever we had available - mainly just sand - and painted a very abstract painting. We then wrote our names in the sand and collected shells. Afterwards, we returned to our paintings and they had been organized into a group piece and our cardboard was used as borders. And thus, as a group, we created an installation.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop as it was a worthwhile experience and I learned a lot. Khaldoun taught me to open my eyes to the world around me.