By Ingrid Yeung ‘23 and Julie He ‘23
(By Nashua Poreda '22 A 3D Drawing of Trees)
(Madison Hoang’23 World of Glass)
(Katie Mao’22 Studio II)
A pandemic struck the whole world in just a span of a few months. COVID-19 greatly impacted all of our lives. Forced out of our normal lives of working, studying, and connecting with people at school, we were trapped inside our own house, and everything seemed to exist only through the internet. Self-isolating significantly altered every aspect of our lives. For students, remote learning has brought with it many challenges. Limited workspace at home, the loss of group projects and experiments, and not being able to connect with our classmates and teachers physically; those are all we have to overcome. Learning in the Arts was perhaps the most impacted by these physical challenges.
Unlike English or History or Religion which rely mostly on reading texts that can be digitized, art requires supplies and tangible objects like paper and brushes. When everything turned to remote learning, all the art supplies were left behind in the studio, and the students met challenges of limited supplies, space at home, and time difference.
International students who take arts experienced even more significant difficulties. The students in Ms. Putnam’s studio class worked hard to make remote art learning work. They tried to use what they had to create the best work possible. Working on smaller papers, trying different forms of creative art-making, and making use of their space at home, the studio art students created pieces that might not exist if the pandemic hasn’t occurred.
Ms. Putnam’s Studio I students had the chance to make a collaborative art piece during the remote learning time. Students had to work on reflective objects in their own houses with colored pencils and render some specific sectors of the paper with opposite colors. After all the students finished their pieces, Ms. Putnam would then arrange all of the pieces together to create a collective art piece. This thoughtful presentation of students’ artwork brought all of us separated in different continents together. With creative approaches to remote art learning and students’ cooperation and hard work, the art students here in St. Mark’s overcame the problems they encountered during the disastrous pandemic.
Not only art students but life for teachers were also made hard by COVID-19. As an art teacher, “Absolutely Everything” has changed for Ms. Putnam. Dedicated to her students and work, Ms. Putnam rushed to the art store on the last day to buy supplies and sent them out. However, she had to change her classwork to fit the quarantine schedule. When asked about challenges, Ms. Putnam mentioned the time difference, and she felt terrible for the students in a different time zone.
Every cloud has a silver lining, and through the online school system, Ms. Putnam was able to find out more about her students and their interests. There was also more free time for her students and assignments they were able to do. Although she cannot be physically next to her students to guide them, her students are doing a good job and are creative. The Studio 2 class had to work with folded paper, and her class took the instructions in stride and went beyond her expectations. Many students took the assignments seriously and went very profoundly, working with their surroundings carefully. Some chose to work with nature, some decided to represent their family in an artwork, and others all observed and drew thoughtfully and presented beautiful works to Ms. Putnam. (Katie Mao’22 Studio 2)
None of the students gave up because of the hardship due to the outbreaks. Putnam enthusiastically described those art pieces with praises and acclaims. Through her passionate explanations, we could see that even if the pandemic limited our movement, it could not suppress Ms. Putnam’s love for art and her students.
This school year is coming to an end, and everyone in St. Mark’s has learned from those weeks of remote learning. We never thought our year would end remotely, and we cannot physically connect with our peers and teachers. However, remote learning did not stop St. Markers from working hard and chasing their dreams. The art students and teachers encountered many problems, but they solved all of them one by one, step by step. They approached art learning creatively and turned all the challenges into advantages for discovering new ways of approaching assignments. The pandemic outbreak might change our approach to art learning, but what it cannot change is our passion for art.