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Suffering in Chinese Buddhism and Italian Christianity: Comparison Between Northwestern Chinese Mogao Grottoes and Italian Christian Artworks
By Sherry Mi, IV Form
Suffering in Chinese Buddhism and Italian Christianity: Comparison Between Northwestern Chinese Mogao Grottoes and Italian Christian Artworks
Student-Submitted Note: I conducted this individual research in the Summer. Inspired by my pre-COVID travels to the Mediterranean region, I became greatly interested in European art history while constantly being influenced by Chinese art and culture. My research is a response to my childhood wonder about religious art.
INTRODUCTION
Visual art is one of the easiest ways to communicate, while the spread of a religion depends on the diffusion of its beliefs, which solely depends on communication. For this reason, artists have created countless religious works in the past millennia. Furthermore, the use of religious symbols increased as religions, usually including scriptures, holy figures, and taboos, were systematized. Symbols convey essential religious ideas to the viewers, including suffering.
In my 2020 visit to the Mogao Grottoes in Northwestern China, I also noticed that Buddhist stories of sacrifice and suffering were also one of the most depicted images. Religious beliefs, I conjectured, supplement images of suffering, delivering an important lesson about pain to the followers: Why is pain present? How can one cope with it? Notably, religious art only represents the opinions of its artist, probably on behalf of society, but not God. Opinions may change over time.
I soon discovered that these images were produced inconsistently as the religion evolved. I recorded my discoveries in Buddhist and Christian art in the following analysis. As the religion developed, religious art deviated from images of suffering. The reduction of such images hinted at a transformation of the invisible relationship between religion and society.
What force could drive this palpable change? I noticed similar trends in the development of Chinese Buddhist and Italian Christian art: images of suffering were abundant for one historical period, but declined as the next period began. I also wondered if Buddhist and Christian artists interpreted suffering similarly by making similar artistic choices. This analysis is a possible answer.
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Together: A Community Mural
By Members of the Community Art Club: Emma Lu, Cathy Shi, Grace Li, Grace Lee, Ingrid Yeung, Lily Luo, Sua Yoo, Taylor Zhou, Julie He, and Yolanda Fan.
Together: A Community Mural
Introduction: The community art club is a recently formed club where multiple passionate artists bring together aspects of community and acts of service to our artwork. Our recent project was a community mural where each person drew one part of a larger image, which were later combined to make this piece. The mural is meant to represent that the individual qualities that each person brings to St. Mark’s is what builds the community as a whole. Without one piece of the drawing, it may not even look like three complete lions! Each artist drew their part of the picture with a different style and color scheme, which shows the diversity that each person’s creativity brings to our community.
Custom Shoes with the Fifth Form Fellowship
By Leila Frederick, VI Form
Custom Shoes with the Fifth Form Fellowship
Editor’s Note: This project was made possible with the support of the Class of 1968 V Form Fellowship. At their 25th reunion, the Class of 1968 created a fund to provide grants to V Form students for independent study during the school year or, more commonly, during the summer between V and VI Forms. Their intent in establishing this fund was to reward independent thinking, ingenuity, and planning and to encourage the student exploring non-traditional fields of inquiry or using non-traditional methods of investigation.
This past Summer I utilized the Fifth Form Fellowship grant to pursue a new art medium: painting custom shoes. I’d held an interest in painting shoes for a while, mostly because I had been seeing more and more Youtube videos of artists starting to paint wearable art. Being a bit of a sneaker fan, I watched a lot of those videos, especially over quarantine. Thanks to this grant, I was able to purchase some preliminary shoes, paints, brushes, and shoelaces to begin working on some shoes of my own!
I began by starting an Instagram account (@first_soup_productions) in order to easily communicate with customers. When someone was interested, they would directly message me with some general ideas.
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Commercialism Distorts Art (en français)
By Laura Drepanos, VI Form
Commercialism Distorts Art (en français)
Editor’s Note: This is a timed in-class essay in Advanced French. Following several weeks discussing the contemporary theme of aesthetics, the class was tasked with referencing texts and videos to determine whether society shapes art or art shapes society.
On doit noter que l’art joue un rôle important dans la société. Il y a des événements, des emplois, et des rapports qui sont formés par l’art. Mais, aussi, il y a un autre rapport entre l’art et la société; la société peut jouer un rôle dans la formation des arts. En considérant tous, parce qu’on ne peut pas contrôler l’interprétation de l’art, l’art est beaucoup plus une réflection d’une communauté.
La première preuve que l’art n’a pas beaucoup d’influence sur une communauté, c’est le fait que seulement 35% des canadiens visitent des musées des beaux-arts chaque année. Alors, si la plupart des gens ne regardent jamais les œuvres d’art, comment peuvent-t-ils former la société? De plus, d’après le même sondage, fait par Phoenix SPI, pas mal de gens voient l’art comme un moyen de s’exprimer, socialiser, et se sentir bien, mais pas pour communiquer un message. Alors, les arts n’ont pas un grand impact sur les croyances d’une communauté. (more…)
Global Influences On Artistic Expression
By Kaley LeBlanc, IV Form
Global Influences On Artistic Expression
I am an artist. My love for art originated when I lived in Barcelona, Spain. I was around two years old when my family and I relocated there. While I do not remember much, I do recall how the next few years living there highly influenced my passion for the visual arts. I took art classes with my sister and visited stunning places with my dad such as La Sagrada Familia and the Louvre. I then moved to Shanghai, China at the age of seven. I was introduced to a completely new style of architecture and visual arts. While in Asia, my family and I visited floating villages, Buddhist temples, and the Forbidden City. Europe, I felt, was more industrial and Gothic, meanwhile, Asia was simplistic and filled with peace and nature. Both of these places had completely different styles of architecture and art. Only when I moved back to the United States did I realize how incredible these experience where and how unique they were to me.
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Green Sea Turtle – Chelonia mydas & Marine Turtle Exhibition
By Cadence (Catie) Summers, IV Form
Green Sea Turtle – Chelonia mydas & Marine Turtle Exhibition
Green Sea Turtle – Chelonia mydas
Stage in Maturity – Adult (more…)
Fundamentals of Photography: A St. Mark’s Saturdays Course
By Waverly Shi, Celine Ma, Hudson Ramirez, Alex Chen, Emma Simon, JB Clarance, Tommy Flathers, Duncan McCarthy, Holden Leblanc, Elon Stefan, Trevor Neff, Peter Nelson
To view slideshow of student images and skill employed, CLICK HERE!!
Fundamentals of Photography: Syllabus
A. Making Great Pictures
- what makes a great picture
- understanding your camera
- selecting the right lens for your photo
- using shutter speed purposefully
- photo shoot – front circle: take a series of photos of something that’s moving and show how different shutter speeds produce different results
B. Aperture and Depth of Field
- understand the inverse relationship between aperture and depth of field
- sharing and critique of photos from previous week
- photo shoot – cemetery: use aperture to create depth of field
C. Lighting
- found or ambient light
- introduced light and flash
- the color of light
- sharing and critique of photos from previous week
- photoshoot – reservoir trail:use lighting creatively
Pitch Project TV Show Winner: Noise
By Bailey Horne, Nathan Laudani, and Luca Vicinelli, VI Form
Pitch Project TV Show Winner: Noise
Concept Art by Bailey; click on image for Trailer.
Logline
Police Partners and best friends Walker Gibney and Irvin Demak undertake a horrifying mystery to uncover the disappearance of multiple individuals in a nearby forest.
Elevator Pitch
Walker Gibney, Irvin Demak, and two other police officers get a call and go to investigate a noise complaint in the woods. As they reach the woods, they split up to cover more ground, and the other two officers disappear. When the missing officers don’t turn up, they look further into the matter, and a bigger mystery unfolds. There are supernatural gifts, a fearless leader, and a war that nobody knows about until now. Meanwhile, Walker is facing an internal struggle with his family. The divorce between Walker and his wife has broken many relationships, especially the bond between Walker and his daughter, Sophia. As the mystery unfolds, he must make decisions that will center around the fate of both Fort Collins and Gib’s loved ones. (more…)
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