Mika Teo

Theme: Gratitude in Action

Merit, School Category, 2025

Artist statement:

I drew a close up shot of an eye and illustrated the iris like a window leading to a room with a girl seen peering through the windowsill. I decided to draw this to represent the idiom, “the eyes are the window to the soul”. There is a happy girl seen from the window, meant to depict gratitude as there is a new beginning for her with a new cornea, a new vision, and new experiences. The curtains around her open, signifying a new beginning and the beginning of new day, and the plants around her flourish from the sunlight around them as curtains open. The girl and the plants in the room thrive with a new opening from the window through the eye. The frosted, white vignette around the eye symbolises the vision of people who require corneal transplants. As the effect guides your focus onto the girl, it represents how after receiving a cornea transplant, one's vision becomes clear and bright again. Therefore, the donor would never be forgotten, and the teardrop can be seen brimming at the eye, representing gratitude towards the donor. The addition of a hand at the right side, near the eye, was to symbolise the donor and its everlasting impact on the patient, and how the presence of the donor was significant.

About the Artist

Mika Teo, 16
Kranji Secondary School