14-year-old Sam was nominated for TrinityTalent 2020 for his achievements in sculpture for his Silver Arts Award. He completed his Arts Award with Hampton Boys School and focused on the use of unusual materials regarding the biophilic materials related to sustainability and recycling old computer parts such as hard drives for sculpting.
Sam was nominated by his mother Helen Berresford. Helen said: "Sam has recently been honing his skills and developing his knowledge of the arts. Sam has been trying to understand the fabulous world of sculptures, and he has produced a marvellous sculpture for his Arts Award along with a 138-page portfolio showing all of his lovely work. Sam researched and found two people who really helped him with building an idea of sustainability, the environment and wellbeing. He recycled everything from old hard drives to old Christmas tree lights. Personally, Sam's piece has really inspired me."
The Trinity judges said: "We were impressed with Sam's experimentation with unusual materials and we loved that Sam chose to play with items even when it didn't naturally fit the box of what he was doing. It was evident he was enjoying art for itself and doesn't follow the usual boundaries. Sam proactively reached out to experts for advice and has not been afraid to do something out of the ordinary."
How has your Trinity qualification influenced your creative flair?
I think that the Arts Award has influenced my creativity, particularly with unusual materials and combinations such as charcoal, paints and crayons. This helped me create a rather interesting and different piece just recently. I looked at rather interesting materials such as an old coca-cola bottle which I heated with a hot air gun to melt the outside layer of plastic and cause its structural integrity to collapse and leading to a crumpled plastic bottle with which I suspended in the middle of the box. I also focused on weaving wires from old Christmas tree lights in between the disks from old office hard drives which were perfect mirrors. This reflected the light from the LED wine base creating an eerie almost alien look.
Has taking part in a Trinity qualification helped you to develop wider skills?
I believe that the Arts award qualification has particularly impacted my artistic achievement and how I view my art, everything from what mediums I am using to the colours I am using. Also, I focused on sustainability and being environmentally friendly, this has helped me to gain a different perspective on the world and how we as humans treat it.
Would you like to tell us anything about the challenges you’ve faced this year, and how you’ve overcome them to achieve your qualification?
This year I had several challenges impacting my artistic skill development. Going into lockdown was rather difficult doing the Arts Award at the same time as I tried to focus on home, also at the point I did some of this I was isolating from my family which made it hard for me to concentrate and think about things other than boredom and sadness.
What are the next steps for you following your qualification?
The next steps for my qualifications are to aim towards getting an A in GCSE art. I am spending lots of time outside of school doing art and trying to progress my skills as an artist, I was quite lucky because I have lots of artists supplies including paint and charcoals which allowed me to develop my skills outside of school.
What are your career aims?
In my life I would like to do something related to art and sustainability, I would like to be a graphics designer, or I would like to be head of sustainability at an architecture firm as I think I would largely fit in and fill that role well. These jobs would really show that what I did for my Arts Award affected my life and that doing it is worth it and enjoyable as well. I feel that I could really help companies become more sustainable as well as energy-efficient, therefore, benefitting them and the environment.
Have you got any advice for other young people working towards Arts Award or a Trinity qualification?
My advice to any young person doing an Arts Award or Trinity qualification is to put as much effort as possible into it and be yourself, do something you like because the more you know on the subject and the more you understand about it the more likely they are going to choose you. I believe you just need to put your head down and work and hopefully, you will get what you wished for.
Read more about the talented young people selected to be featured as part of the TrinityTalent Class of 2020.
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