Name/Title
Sister Madeline Chi - Street Scene - Oakwood AthertonDescription
Born in Shanghai, China in 1930, Sr. Madeleine was raised in a family with mixed Catholic and Buddhist spiritual traditions that are reflected in her artwork. She grew up in the midst of war, with conflicts between China and Japan, World War II and civil war between Nationalists and Communists.
She first came to the U.S. in 1952, where she received all her higher education, including a Ph.D. in modern French history from Fordham and M.A. from Columbia. Sister Madeleine has done research in London and Tokyo, and taught at New York's Manhattanville College and Taiwan's Fujen University.
"Even though my study is in history," she says, "I have an artistic temperament." She developed her love of watercolors in her Chinese high school. She has a great passion for visiting art museums and taking photographs. In her art she likes using bright colors and contrast.
Sr. Madeleine believes in the importance of silence and practices "centering prayer" for an hour each morning, feeling "in union with the whole universe." She prays intensely these days for suffering children in war-torn countries.
She believes silence is helpful for painting also: "The Zen masters meditated for a long time, then picked up a brush and in one minute they finished their masterpiece."
