I went to Art Lab at Snug Harbor with a couple of my friends. I think this made the class more enjoyable. It was my first time oil painting, and it was definitely the most difficult medium I have ever worked with. The instructor was very helpful and showed me how to color mix since mixing the oil paint is a little different than other types of paint. I decided to paint a bunch of tomatoes in a paper container. It was very difficult to paint the shadows, since the oil paint layered itself in a way I wasn’t used too. I think my painting came out decent for a first try, but I’m interested in trying something like this again. Overall, the class was a really fun experience.

The trip to the theatre was a long and interesting one. The theatre being located right off of times square made it seem more prestigious.

I felt that the play took a while to get me interested, as the first half seemed very repetitive. I did find it cool how they utilized the lights to make a day and night cycle. The set design was also really cool, especially considering it took place in one small set. I liked the use of the frosted window as a way to show a character’s exit. I think I also felt a little bored with the idea of there being only two characters for the majority of the play. It made it seem like each part was extremely drawn out.

In terms of story, I did not get most of the jokes and saw it as a sadder play. I think the acting was really good especially when the male actor recounted his experience taking care of his dying family members. I thought that the inclusion of his affair was a little sudden, and was surprised it was a major plot point. It was still very emotional, and I think it was the best acted part of the play. I think the ending being ambiguous was a little confusing, since the story felt like it was just starting to ramp up. The sudden ending had me thinking that there would be a continuation and that the ending was not finished yet.

I think I liked Paul’s character better than Katie. I felt that she switched up her opinion on two major events way too quickly, with no explanation. At first, she absolutely refused to poison Paul, yet as the story went on, she seems more open to doing so without reason. Secondly, she criticizes Paul for his affair with the doctor initially, yet she later supports him in trying to rekindle the relationship due to them having chemistry. The sudden change of heart was pretty confusing and made her character a little unlikable.

Overall, I think the play was an interesting experience and I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I think this play could have some improvements, especially with the ending, but overall, it was a great experience to go with friends.

On Sunday afternoon, I endured a traffic-filled trip into Manhattan to attend an Off-Broadway performance of The Counter at the Roundabout Theatre. I was unsure of what to expect from this play, as I had only previewed a short synopsis about its plot to get a general understanding about what I would be watching. I knew that it would be tackling heavy topics such as suicide, so I was prepared for this aspect. However, there were various characteristics of the show that surprised me.

When I took my seat in the theatre, I opened my Playbill to skim through it. I thought it was interesting that there were only three members of the cast that would be taking the stage. This contrasts my previous experience in attending theater productions because I am used to seeing large casts and ensembles perform with one another. I believe that the reason that the cast is so small is to help maintain the focus of the play. If there were more characters in the play, our protagonists, Paul and Katie, may not have been fully developed to the extent that they are at the conclusion of the show.  Providing backstory and emphasizing the manner of interaction between these two characters is crucial to conveying the story as a whole, and thus would have been less impactful if overcomplicated with unnecessary side characters. It may be arguable that Peg is a side character, but it is evident that her role in the play was critical, for she was able to reveal aspects of Paul’s life to Katie that he would not have been willing to share otherwise. This allows us to contextualize his current state of mind to further understand his choices.

Another feature of the show that surprised me was its simplistic set design. I personally believe that set curators and designers can be considered artists because they are responsible for creating visuals that lend themselves to the story, without revealing too much information. At some shows that I have attended in the past, there are frequent or periodic changes in scenery. I thought it was interesting that the set remained the same for the duration of the play, and I feel that this is intentional so that the viewers understand that our characters are the ones moving the story along, rather than them being moved. I did enjoy how the lighting would change to represent night and morning, which would signify a new day.

I thought that the dialogue itself was emotional and at times difficult to listen to. Both Paul and Katie had endured troublesome events in their lives. However, Katie chooses to handle her trauma by running away from it and refusing to / putting off confronting it, when in reality that is an important step to healing. In my opinion, one of the most impactful moments of the show is when Katie reveals to Paul that she had to have surgery due to medical complications and can no longer have children. You can hear the frustration and anguish in the actress’s performance. I feel that this signified how we as people do not always know what others have experienced, as this was triggered by Paul saying that she does not know how to take care of someone. We also learn that Paul’s brother and mother passed away, and he feels that they were the only people who were capable of truly loving him. Both Katie and Paul’s hardships provoke strong emotion in viewers and help us to gain insight into their actions.

However, I still have some questions about the ending of the play. I find it difficult for me to decipher whether the conclusion of the show is intentionally open-ended, with the purpose of provoking thought within the audience, or if I just happened to miss something; admittedly, I zoned out a few times due to the show’s somewhat repetitive nature at times. I am hoping that it is the former. If inviting viewers to interpret the final scene in a way that makes sense to them was the playwright’s intended goal, I feel that they accomplished this. While I was watching in the moment, I was anticipating Paul to begin exhibiting signs of a stroke, as I had somehow assumed that Katie decided to poison his coffee that morning. This is largely due to the long embrace that the characters share just moments before Katie exits the cafe. It felt like a final goodbye, so I was under the impression that she may have known he would pass away in a short amount of time. However, this did not occur, but that is not to say that this could not have occurred after the final scene concluded. This may have to do with playing into the pessimistic / optimistic nature of viewers, as pessimists may be more inclined to assume that Paul’s life would shortly come to an end, while optimists may assume that this long goodbye signifies an end to Katie’s temporary solution of running away from her issues, as she leaves to meet up with her estranged friend/lover who she has been ignoring for two years. This epitomizes how this play, much like any art, is subjective, and can hold various meanings to different people depending on the general outlook on life, which can be impacted by both their lived experiences and the world around them.

 

Brendan Kwan

14 September, 2024

 

My friends and I decided to go to the Art Lab at Snug Harbor. We decided to participate in the Oil Painting segment. We met a nice artist named Griselda. She taught us how to utilize our eyes in order to fully understand the dimensions and of the object we are trying to draw. The object that I had to draw was a pair of pears. At first, I thought my art piece was going to be horrible just from the outline. As it came together, I stopped comparing my pair of pears to other people’s pairs of pears and started to really focus on my art, and surely enough, it became a masterpiece in my eyes. I began to mix colors in order to get somewhat identical colors as the real pears. I then focused on the background of the pears. Following that, I started mixing colors in order to make shadows for the pears. I was really surprised by how nice my pears turned out. Finally, when all was said and done, I signed my piece with a fine tip brush, giving it nice, slow strokes in order to write it neatly. The main lesson I learned during this art lab, is that even if you do not have much experience with art, anything is really possible

This was one of several posters created during the 1980s, encouraging civilians to boycott goods that were produced by non-white South Africans under the existing apartheid state. Protest art in South Africa during this time period often came in the form of posters, calling people to action to join in marches, boycotts, or anti-apartheid organizations.

The Apartheid was a set of policies in South Africa instated by prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, which segregated white and non-white (Black and Indian) people. Non-whites were forced to live in different areas, received less education, were restricted from voting, were banned from interracial marriage, and were exploited for labor. Corporations like Del Monte profited off of the slavery-like conditions that non-white South Africans were forced to work under. This particular piece depicts a very gestural image many Black South Africans working in cramped quarters at a Del Monte food processing plant. They lack defined facial features, showing how corporations simply saw these workers as a means of production rather than individuals deserving of rights. They didn’t want consumers to view workers as human. The women in the center of the image is drawn with detail and a concerned expression to remind the viewer of the people behind the production of the goods they consume.

 

My piece of protest art expressed opposition to the brutal violence of the far-right death squads in El Salvador, which were part of extremist paramilitary groups that terrorized their own people and which were secretly funded by American aid. This work was critical more broadly of all of the far-right death squads in Latin America which were supported by the US in order to suppress far-left revolutionaries. These extremist militant groups killed many innocent people in order to stamp out communist political movements, yet many of their victims were not even communists, but centrists or people uninvolved in politics altogether. This piece of art was important because there was American support-as part of the Cold War-for brutal regimes and groups which devastated the lives of innocent people for political purposes. America sought to support these anti-communist forces even though they carried out tremendous violence. There was a lack of awareness among the American public of the kinds of atrocities which were being perpetrated by those with US support. Additionally, there was also a lack of concern-likely due to racism-for the lives of Latin American people, who were viewed as pawns in the greater geopolitical struggle against the Soviet Union. Golub used this protest art to awaken American hearts to the injustices being enabled by the American government. He portrayed the victims and perpetrators with white skin in order that his American audience could connect to the violence. The portrayal of a policeman who is wearing a uniform which looks American also taps into the American understanding of police violence and seeks to apply that experience to the terror occurring in Latin America. Today this painting resonates very differently because it just appears to be an American policeman to a contemporary eye rather than a foreign militant force. Modern onlookers are familiar with images of policemen wielding their guns and forcing innocent people to the ground and this image evokes an objection to unrestrained police violence. Additionally, the kind of power which is exerted over the civilian depicted and the villainous resentment displayed by the officer’s facial expression provides the American viewer with a sense of cruelty. The officer displays total callousness, which is an appalling indictment of what the justice system does when contrasted with how it ought to act. Those who are more geopolitically acquainted may see in this work an allusion to the kinds of US military aid which is still given to ruthless forces-like Saudi Arabia in prosecuting their horrific war in Yemen. However, the average American viewer of this piece today feels the brutishness of the American police above anything else.

          I decided to visit the Art Lab at Snug Harbor with my friends, as they were hosting an open house free of charge. We chose to enter an oil painting exhibit, where we were introduced to an oil painting artist. She shared several facts about these paintings, one of them being how the illusion of 3-dimensional objects in a 2-dimensional painting are created. Farther objects are usually colored darker and closer objects are colored more vibrantly because that’s how humans perceive things. Some of her paintings scattered around the room clearly displayed the illusion she described. 

          She then set up a hands-on activity for us to paint one of the references out of several that were present. Our options were to paint tomatoes in a basket, two pears, two pumpkins, or a fennel. I chose the pear, because it was nice and simple and I could focus more on the color details rather than the shape, as it was mostly circular and smooth. We had several different colors to choose from, and we were allowed to mix them in order to make the painting as best as possible. I wanted the canvas to be positioned vertically, so I only painted one pear and half of the other pear. The artist gave us the color blue at first to make an outline because it was her favorite color to start with. I found it weird because I always assume that people would use the color black to make outlines. After finishing the outline, we added colors to the painting. In my painting, I colored the middle and top of the pear with a lighter color, and the sides and bottom with a darker one, in order to take into account the light and shadows and to try to accomplish the 3 dimensional effect. Then for the color of the table cloth, the artist seamlessly mixed the colors for me to make it as close as possible to the real one, which I found very impressive. To make the shadows on the cloth, I made the color slightly darker. After completing the drawing, in my opinion, I didn’t successfully pull off the 3 dimensional illusion. However, I did a lot better than I thought, therefore I am satisfied with my painting. 

          Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. Although I only visited one exhibit, there were many others, so I could only imagine what else I could’ve learned or seen. I would definitely go again with my friends to see what else they would have to offer.

This piece of political art stands for the conflict that is still ongoing in Ukraine. It depicts Vladimir Putin in an interesting point of view where he appears baby-like who is attempting to eat a dish that is just Ukraine. It is important to analyze this piece because it illustrates the strength and resilience of Ukraine. In the piece, there is the depiction of broken forks that show the amount of attempts that Putin had to divide Ukraine that have been unsuccessful. It is also important to note that this piece creates a distinction between a war between two countries and a war between a man and a country. This speaks volumes as it shows the unity in Ukraine as a country and a man with a dream of colonialism and destruction. It definitely still resonates now because although this piece was created in 2022, its message is still very much intact. Even two years later, Ukraine has very much stayed united and resisted every attempt illustrated in the artwork. The frustration on his face is very telling of his perspective on the war, as he is not reaching his goal. Even the subtle smear of red on his “bib” obviously demonstrates the bloodshed that has transpired. This piece does a great job of presenting its message without using any language. Overall, this piece is crucial in understanding the war and what is going on in both of the perspectives.

This particular piece of protest art very bigotedly and ignorantly portrayed a blatantly Jewish caricature covetously clinging on to the globe with the title, “Their Homeland”. This was the front page image of a French newspaper in 1893. This image portrays how Jews at this time were believed to be a parasite claiming possession of any and every land they come to simply declaring their right to it, as it is their homeland. When in fact the truth is that Jews were forced out of every land they escaped to due to global religious persecution and expulsion since the beginning of their existence, whether it be from the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Yemen, or England. This influenced the vast hatred for Jewish individuals and the idea that there was a necessity for eradication of the Jewish population. In fact, during the French Revolution in the late 18th century, France was the first country in Europe to emancipate its Jewish population. This idea in France had a profoundly sickening impact on the entire continent, most notably in Germany in WW2 which resulted in one of the most horrific and evil genocides that claimed the lives of over 6 million Jews, some of which were my passed family members, French Jews. Today, we look at this protest art as a window into that disappointing time in history when hatred was unconcealed and proud. We stare at this piece in disbelief and shock how something like this was ever so overt. Nevertheless, we fail to notice or perhaps desire to be blind to the fact that antisemitism is still alive and stronger than ever in different forms such as in modern memes, which is especially hurtful as we know the history and effects of our hatred. Yet, we are willing to relive and sacrifice replicating it. To add, France today has the third largest Jewish population in the world, behind those of Israel and the United States. Notwithstanding, antisemitism is growing and more Jews experience antisemitism, online, in person, through both physical and verbal violence.