Hasali Baddewithana has been drawing ever since she was a little girl. Hasali has this to say about what inspired her to study Concept Art and why she chose to attend Max the Mutt:
“I used to watch the animated cartoons my mother recorded for me on VHS tapes, listen to fairy tales and fables my grandmothers would tell, and feeling inspired, draw on the backs of discarded printer paper my grandfather would bring home for me from his workplace.
My father’s job required us to move frequently so I have lived in several countries, such as Oman and U.A.E., although I am originally from Sri Lanka. After several years, my family and I finally moved to and settled down in Canada.
I first came to know of Max the Mutt when I graduated high school. At the time, I showed MTM my work and was encouraged to apply. I told them that although I had decided that I would attend university for sciences, I would definitely come back and enter art school afterwards.
I drew a lot throughout my childhood. As I had progressed through high school, I had had to cut back on drawing and eventually stopped drawing altogether in university to focus on school work. I spent 3 unsatisfactory years in university before I found my courage to leave and apply for art school. The driving force behind my decision to choose MTM over another school was because MTM had felt much more personal and welcoming than my experience of being lost among the crowd at a busy university.
I hope to one day be able to create my own story, animate and publish it. I’d like to be able to take a job that allows me to build models of props and gain more experience in the field of 3D software, in either the film or gaming industry.
When I first contemplated entering art school, I had to think a lot about doing art as a job and what I hoped to contribute to the world through my work. I came to the conclusion that I want to use my life experiences and art to tell meaningful stories. The arts and individual’s stories are often underestimated and unappreciated in today’s world. Yet when I look back on my life and think of the difficult times, I realize the one constant is that I found my hope in stories, brought to me by artists from around the world. My stories have been with me through everything. They gave me the strength to believe in my own worth and ability, and gave me the hope to keep pushing through the storm. My only wish is to create one that is deep enough to do the same for someone else in this world – and inspire them to live and to do the same in their own way.”
