When I went to the Art Lab, the street leading right to the entrance was completely flooded, so I had to take a different route. It turned out that every other street after the entrance to the Art Lab was a one-way street going the opposite way, so I had to go down several blocks just to get in through the exit.

When I finally got there, the only class offered was for kindergarteners. Since I was already there, and I didn’t want to just go home without doing anything, I decided to take the class with them. When I walked into the classroom, they were all painting realistic people, but I am still stuck on doing stick figures, so it was embarrassing to see them doing much more advanced pictures. I ended up leaving the class and tried looking for another the same day, but the next class for people my age wasn’t for a few more days, so I would have had to leave and come back a completely different time.

I decided to stay longer and look at the paintings and sculptures that were on display. I also found out that there were many different classes offered. This included classes offered for painting, drawing, sowing, photography, darkroom photography, and stained glass painting. There were many different studios for each class, and many of the works produced there were on display.

 

Introduction:

My artistic ability when it comes to drawing, or painting is terrible. Unless I trace over some sort of already completed drawing, I can pretty much draw only well made stick figures and put random colors on a canvas. So, going into the art lab run by the Staten Island Museum, I expected to not really get how the art was drawn and find myself being lost in the room full of art. However Griselda, the person running the oil painting lab there, took us through a beginner crash course of oil paintings and was an amazing teacher as most of us were painting for the first time ever. I would say my experience at the art lab went better than expected as I created my first oil painting and learned a lot about how artists compose them.

Lecture & Painting:

Griselda told us the most challenging aspect of art is shaping the 2D world of a canvas into a 3D one. The artist has the responsibility of creating perspective within the canvas; the background having a lighter color to emphasize its presence and the foreground not overpowering the overall positioning of the art. She gave us a lot of useful tips such as starting with the background to make painting the foreground a lot easier, and also outlining our painting before even beginning. After her lecture on oil paintings, she set up everything to allow us to create our own paintings and we were given objects that we could choose from. I chose the fennel as the object since it was the most interesting to me, and I thought it seemed easy to draw. Just bits of splatters of green for the leaves and branches, and white for the base; however, it was a lot harder than I initially anticipated.

The funnel was placed within the perspective of a window and that’s what I imagined my painting to be. I wanted to have the window be within the perspective of the funnel and then have the funnel be the foreground of my painting. However, doing this as a beginner, was not a great idea. I started with the background of the clear sky, and the trees in the background, but then when I started painting the funnel it just blended in with my painting of the trees. So, within my painting you can’t really tell the difference between the foreground and the background and it just lost all perspective, which didn’t really turn out to be how I envisioned.

 

Picture of Funnel Painting

Conclusion:

It was fun to do my first oil painting at the art lab and it was therapeutic almost as I felt so relaxed after I finished my painting for some reason. It was also interesting to see how others painted the objects they chose; Aleksey’s and Kryistan’s paintings, in particular, did a really nice job of putting everything into perspective and you can clearly tell the objects they were attempting to paint. Looking back, my painting could’ve been a lot better if I just focused on painting the desk and the funnel, but what I pictured was the funnel getting a shining perspective from the window and the sky with the background having trees within it. So, I attempted to do so and although it didn’t come out as I expected, I definitely want to start painting more or just drawing in general. I used to draw a lot but I stopped, I think just before COVID so I want to start getting back into it again. Overall, it was a great experience and I learned a lot from Griselda and everyone there about oil painting, and it was great to sort of see the process for drawing the art and getting hands on with it.

Watching The Counter at the Roundabout Theater was an unexpectedly moving experience for me. At first, I thought it would be a simple play about a waitress and a regular customer in a small-town diner. As the story unfolded, however, it became so much more, a profound exploration of human connection, loneliness, and the burdens we sometimes place on others.

The characters of Katie and Paul, played brilliantly by Susannah Flood and Anthony Edwards, drew me in immediately. Their relationship starts in such an ordinary way, with Katie refilling Paul’s coffee, but there’s an emotional depth that’s slowly revealed as they open up to each other. The use of the passage of time throughout the play shows the first-person thoughts and feelings of Katie and Paul, which truly revealed the emotions that they both shared for one another. I found myself relating to Katie’s guarded demeanor, perhaps because it reminded me of those times when you’re going through something personal and, unexpectedly, someone in your life helps you carry that weight, even for just a moment.

The most powerful part of the play, for me, was when Paul makes a shocking request asking Katie to poison his coffee within the next couple of months, which ultimately forces both characters to confront their innermost fears and secrets. It made me think about how our everyday interactions, even the ones that seem trivial, can have such lasting effects on us. There’s a beautiful tension between humor and heaviness in the script, which is a testament to Meghan Kennedy’s writing. One moment I was chuckling at a light-hearted exchange, and the next, I was on the edge of my seat, wondering how these characters would navigate their intense, deeply personal emotions.

The diner setting was simple yet perfect. It felt intimate, as if I was sitting at the counter with them, observing their lives unfold. The minimalism of the set allowed the actors’ performances to really shine, and it made the emotional stakes feel even more palpable. The actors’ emotions and actions truly shone through the simple setting and made the emotional outbreaks even more prominent and touching. This play reminded me of my favorite episode from the show, Friends, called “The One Where No One’s Ready”. The premise of the episode is the fact that the camera never leaves the living room of Monica and Rachel’s apartment until the characters are all ready for an event in which they leave together, which is where the episode ends. The hilarious dialogue of Joey saying, “Look at me – I’m Chandler! Could I *be* wearing any more clothes?” as he is wearing 100 layers of Chandler’s clothes will forever be one of the most iconic quotes of the show. The simplicity of the setting, as the characters crack joke after joke and stress about what they have to wear to the event further highlights the incredible dynamic that the actors have with one another, very similar to the actors in The Counter.

What struck me the most about The Counter was how it left me reflecting on my own relationships, how even the smallest gestures or conversations can mean so much more than we realize at the time. The play’s exploration of deep themes like grief, loneliness, and moral ambiguity felt universal. I left the theater thinking about the people in my life and the roles we play for each other, whether we realize it or not. In short, The Counter isn’t just a story about a waitress and her customer. It’s about life, how we navigate our connections, and how even the most ordinary relationships can change the discourse of our lives.

A piece of political art I find to be highly interesting is Faith Ringgold’s 1972 poster United States of Attica. Her poster displays a map of the United States divided into four pieces which is dedicated to the prisoners who rioted at Attica Prison in 1971 in protest of the profoundly inhumane conditions at Attica and the prison industrial complex as it stood—and stands. Ringgold’s map is also variously labeled with a wide range of atrocities (and their death tolls) committed by the United States government throughout history, including the My Lai massacre, the Korean War, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki among other things. Every state is additionally labeled with acts of violence committed against marginalized communities, such as lynchings. Her intention with this piece of art was to highlight the violence that the United States was built upon and the cruelty that it continues to dole out today. It was profound in the wake of the Attica riots and it remains profound today, especially when taking into account acts that the American government has been responsible for, such as destabilization of the Middle East and incidents of police brutality. Ringgold addresses the timeless nature of her piece with an addendum on the bottom which reads, “This map of American violence is incomplete – please write in whatever you find lacking.” Her poster still resonates today as Americans hear about senseless violence our country is responsible for every day we read the news or turn on the television.

 

This art has a very strong meaning. It sends a message that people should become more peaceful and that all wars should stop. The artist probably made this because they know that usually nothing good comes out of war. This is important because it shows how there are a lot of useless wars right now or wars for the wrong reasons. It has gotten so bad that the artist decided to make protest art about it. This piece of art resonates with me because I believe that wars should not be started for the wrong reasons. Of course there are some wars that need to be fought. For example, World War Two. In my opinion, if Germany was not stopped, they would keep fighting until they conquered the whole world. This is one of the mandatory wars that must be fought. Most wars do not have to be fought out, and they should look for more peaceful ways to resolve them, like through debates and talks. I say this because, at the end of the day, a human life is worth a lot.

The Art:

My Comment:

In 2018, Banksy, the anonymous street artist known for his provocative works, shocked the art world when his painting *Girl with Balloon* partially shredded itself immediately after being sold for £1.04 million at a Sotheby’s auction. A shredder, hidden in the frame, activated just as the gavel dropped, cutting the artwork into strips. This act of self-destruction was seen as a critique of the commercialization of art, highlighting the absurdity of its commodification and the way it’s often valued more as a status symbol than for its message. What interests me the most about this piece of protest art is how Banksy completely transformed the original message the painting had to an entirely new one. The stunt resonated with many as a bold statement against the elitism of the art market, reinforcing Banksy’s reputation as a protest artist who challenges societal norms. Banksy’s choice to shred his piece of art immediately after it was bought forms his art into a completely different message of critique and disgust towards the value that society places on how market value defines how important a piece of art actually is.

This photograph showcases a painting on the Berlin Wall titled “My God, Help me To Survive this Deadly Love” and it is a famous piece of graffiti by Dmitri Vrubel. The mural depicts a real-life moment from 1979 when the two Soviet leaders (USSR, & East Germany) kissed, which was a customary greeting to show a strong bond and affection between the communist leaders. This artist wanted to reflect the oppressive and strained nature of the Soviet-East German relationship, diguished as a partnership. This painting was painted shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall, symbolizing the end of the cold war; however, more modernly it captures the deep contradictions in political relationships, where the surface-level unity often hides the deeper forms of oppression and control. This artwork remains one of the most iconic symbols of Berlin and the reunification of Germany which, draws thousands of vistors today.

                                              (Barry Scanlan for Art to Change the World)

This purpose of this image is to convey how large businesses and corporations disregard environmental consequences of their actions in order to extend their wealth and control. This piece of art is quite current (2018?) and its message is still significant as this is still a prominent issue. It is important for us as a society to acknowledge the importance of preserving the state of our planet as it is essential to our survival and our future. It is true that many companies and individuals who are in charge of these companies are motivated by their desire for money and power, with little to no care about how some factors of their operations (ex: high carbon footprints) impact the condition of the planet, environment, and climate. This resonates especially now because it emphasizes how people are so focused on becoming more affluent that they do not see the increasing negative impact they may have on our world.