Because of Covid-19, many Choate students have found themselves spending less time outdoors surrounded by nature, and more time cooped up inside their homes. With a nod to the New York Times, which recently published a similar feature, we invited four students to create art depicting the view from a window of their home.
Artwork by Alex Denhart
Alex Denhart ’20 lives in the rural town of Durham, Conn. Recently, the orchard near Denhart’s house has attracted many people to take a walk or drive down her street, which was unprecedented for her neighborhood.
As Denhart spent more time sitting in front of her desk and looking out the window, she stated that it was easier to notice little details changing. She said, “Outside my office on the first floor, you can see the nest that a bird was building, and you can observe them coming back every day to work on the nest.”
With limited access to her usual materials, Denhart has started to create more digital art, and she believes time during the quarantine is a great opportunity to explore a different genre of art. In her piece, Denhart depicts plain walls and blurry trees behind a cleanly cut window with a simple color palette of navy and coral.
“These days, the world feels hazy. The house sparrows keep me company, even if they do not know I’m there,” said Denhart.
Artwork by Sejin Kim
Sejin Kim ’22 is a student from Busan, a port city in South Korea known for its beaches, mountains,
and temples. Peering out from her windows, Kim felt embraced by the undulating mountains in her hometown. Contrary to most urban dwellers who see a view of emptied streets and a vacant city, Kim noticed an increase in people visiting her neighborhood. “Everybody wants to go on walks alone in the forest now,” she said.
Though Kim prefers sketching and drawing realistically, the artwork she created from the perspective of her window is an acrylic painting of the beach with a muted brown and blue color scheme — the moment as the glowing sun sets on the Haeundae Bridge, it reflects the quivering waves of the ocean and crystallizes the edge of the horizon.
As the view in Kim’s hometown changed from cherry blossoms to verdant meadows over the past month, she has put more time into observing the landscapes from her window. “On other days, I would go outside when the weather is nice,” Kim said. “But now since I’m always at home, my only connection with the outer world is through looking out the windows.”
Artwork by Abby Lu
Although Abby Lu ’22 usually resides in Hong Kong, she currently lives with her aunt in suburban New Jersey. Lu has already begun seeing the effects of social distancing in her temporary neighborhood, noticing fewer and fewer people walking along the streets and the lights inside her neighbors’ houses staying on until 3:00 a.m. (which reminded Lu of a mystery novel in which day and night became indistinguishable).
In her painting, Lu used mixed media paper and acrylic paint combined with unconventional techniques, such as painting with the opening of the acrylic tube, to express herself. She used the contrasting color scheme of warm orange and cooltoned yellow, a juxtaposition that highlights what is alike and different between the two hues. “I want them to be in the same category. But within the category, I want them to be different,” said Lu.
The lack of social interaction during quarantine boosted Lu’s appreciation for people and nature. For Lu, looking outside the window urges her to reflect on her inner self. “I hear a continuous beat that seems to be waiting and asking, ‘When will we go back to normal? Do I miss going back to my life before, or do I enjoy quarantine when I can be relaxed?’”
Artwork by Senching Hsia
For North Haven dweller Senching Hsia ’21, having an influx of time at home enabled her to notice small, exciting events in the neighborhood that she would have usually overlooked. “One day there were several cars tied with balloons that drove into our neighborhood. Another time, a man who was dressed in a dinosaur mascot uniform showed up,” Hsia said.
As a homebody and a day student, Hsia is accustomed to being at home. However, according to Hsia, the lack of social interaction has made her mood dependent solely on the weather. On the occasions when
Hsia saw people outside the window, she felt delighted by seeing the presence of other humans besides her family.
Hsia cited her inspiration as artist David Hockney’s recently released iPad drawings, which reminded her of the coming spring season and moved her to create something positive amidst the gloomy, uncertain atmosphere.
In her artwork, Hsia used vibrant and cheerful colors such as pink, red, and light green to portray cherry blossoms, flowers, new budding leaves, and wildlife to evoke the uplifting emotions that she experienced from viewing Hockney’s work. “I used a warmer color palette to represent my more optimistic feelings towards the current situation. I wanted to evoke the feelings of springtime and the connotations of rebirth, renewal that spring brings,” she said.
“I hope to remind us that we are still able to appreciate the things that are beautiful even though we cannot directly go out and enjoy them,” Hsia continued. “Whenever I go on a walk, I pick up the little cherry blossoms or the acorn on the ground to appreciate the nature around us, even though this isn’t the ideal spring that we imagined.”
