Find Me in a Fish Tank is a watercolor and ink illustration I made for my AP Art class this year. Find me in a fish tank is piece about self-reflection. The girl on the right is sitting in a contemplative pose and calmly pointing at the fish tank in front of her; however, instead of containing normal marine life, this fish tank contains a smaller figure of the girl – one who is getting dragged to the back of the fish tank by an apparition. The fish tank represents the girl’s inner thought process and consciousness, which simultaneously hides in its own shadows and begs to be helped and understood. I chose to draw the bigger girl with black ink, but to use watercolor for the rest of the painting in order to show that the version of the girl that people see is incomplete and surface level, and something far more complex – more colorful – exists within her.
Yana Lipnesh is a senior at Wayland High School in Wayland, Massachusetts. She’s won a number of Scholastic Arts and Writing awards for her illustrations, and her art has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the state. When Yana isn’t creating art, she’s probably watching movies with her foreign film club. Her favorites include 400 Blows and Mon Oncle d’Amerique, but she’s always open to seeing something new!