Project by: Virgil Ratner (10th Grade)
Project Advisor: James French
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Jessica Tan
TRIMESTER 3 UPDATES:
(updates from trimester 2 below–scroll to the bottom to view earlier progress)
Project Description:
“Visual Meditation on Death” is a research and art project intended to capture ideas surrounding human mortality by looking at cultures from around the world. The end result is a poster which illustrates one of humanity’s greatest philosophical conundrums: the impermanence of selfhood.
Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):
Final Reflection on Learning:
During the conception and completion of this project I learned about a wide variety of cultural attitudes toward death; I explored death-related concepts and imagery from Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Taoism, figurative depictions of rebirth–via the phoenix, the allegory of an egg and insemination–and the surreal illustration of other more temporal issues: such as the history of human evolution, the biology of reproduction, physical states of bodily decay, and the mental conundrum of death anxiety and acceptance inspired by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stage grief model. I also included portraits of figures who I thought were important to my studies, including: ancient philosopher Confucius, juxtaposed with more contemporary cultural guru Ram Dass, in an attempt to illustrate the bridge between Eastern and Western philosophies in past and current death attitudes: and Heraclitus, accompanied by a visual representation of his theory of universal “flux.”
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During this period I finalized the pen outline from trimester 2. This process involved finalizing details and erasing previous pencil marks, in addiction to conducting some further research to make sure I wasn’t leaving any potential content from the drawing.
Below is a series of images which summarize different stages of progress over the two week period.
In this snapshot, I’m beginning to color in portions of the image using Copic markers and correction fluid.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
In the following weeks I added small details and altered several areas of the piece until I felt like it was complete. I also used dots of white out to create the illusion of a starry sky. In the weeks 7-9 section is a picture of the finished image, which I continued to work on periodically during that time.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
TRIMESTER 2 (earlier) UPDATES:
Project Description:
“Visual Meditation on Death” is a research and art project intended to capture ideas surrounding human mortality by looking at cultures from around the world. The end result is a poster which illustrates one of humanity’s greatest philosophical conundrums: the impermanence of selfhood.
Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.): see trimester 3 updates above
Final Reflection on Learning:
While working on this project I feel as if I gained a greater understanding of attitudes toward death in various foreign cultures. I often take the world’s scope of different cultural perspectives for granted, mainly focusing on my own “bubble” of thoughts and attitudes, but through conducting research for this drawing I broadened my awareness and discovered new human vantage points on mortality. All of this provided inspiration for the art making process.
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
At this stage I don’t have any pertinent photos or videos to share. This is because I’ve been focused mainly on gathering research and visual references. At the end of this period I now have a document full of different notes and sources focusing on various important ideas regarding the theme of the project.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During this period I started working on a pencil outline for the final piece. The following images are snapshots of certain details that I began outlining while thinking about the composition of the final piece.
Portrait of Ram Dass
Portrait of Confucius
Depiction of Brahma, the Hindu creator God
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
At this point, I have a substantial pencil outline for the final drawing. As you can see there is still some empty space, which I will fill in during the break–but otherwise I think I’m on track towards completing the drawing next trimester. As soon as we return to school I will begin going over the pencil outline in pen and adding color.
