On Saturday, September 13, I had the opportunity to do and experience new things about art that I had never had the chance to do before. These experiences were are the Art Lab Open House at Snug Harbor, which had so many amazing opportunities in art. As someone who doesn’t know much about art and is not very creative or artistic, it was honestly a very fun experience and made me want to branch out and try more creative and artistic things.
In order to arrive early and find parking at Snug Harbor, I arrived around 10:40 AM, early enough to find a singular open parking spot in the many parking lots of Snug Harbor. Best of all, the person parked next to me was crossing over the line, so I had to pray and hope that the person next to me would not scratch or dent my car (they didn’t 🙂). I arrived to the Art Lab Open House around 11 AM, and I was able to join into the growing group of students who were also attending the Art Lab.
We began our time at the Art Lab by choosing to do ceramics. The teacher was a very nice and funny person who made soooo many cool pieces of art. I wish I took a picture, but he made a very cool ceramic frog. The purpose of the class was to learn how to make a basic bowl out of clay, which I ended up half doing. At first, my bowl seemed more like a wobbly plate, but I ended up being able to make it into a stable bowl. I purposefully did not take a picture because my creation was horrendous.
After ceramics, the group separated and went into different partsof the Art Lab. A couple other students and I decided to go see the darkroom photography. The teacher was also a very nice person, he was very well educated on topic and had many cool photographs around the tiny studio that is hidden from the rest of the rooms in that building. He showed us his darkroom photography is done, which is basically through being in a room that is free from light and photographic films and paper, which are sensitive to light, are produced. I really enjoyed the part in which he put the photographic paper, which was blank after taking a photo to reproduce an image, in different solutions, and how the image would be formed in a matter of a few minutes.
Although there was a painting lesson, I chose not to as to not embarrass myself, but it was fun to watch what the other students were painting. Instead, I decided to go see the gallery that was created. The gallery consisted of artworks done by the artists that led the lessons at the Art Lab. There were so many artworks, including tiny sculptures and paintings. There were lots of paintings depicting Staten Island, which I have never seen before. One of my favorite pieces from that gallery was one that reminded me of Staten Island, especially the marina and the shores at Great Kills Harbor, which was a spot that my friends and I liked to hang out after school a lot, so it reminded me of high school and the fun memories I made.
That was the end of my experience at the Art Lab at Snug Harbor. It was a very fun and interesting experience, as it made me want to immerse myself in the world of art. When we left the building, my mom called me and informed me to pick up my sister from Polish school, which cut my time from being with the rest of the group, which went to go see the Fence Show. However, when I got to go pick up my sister, she decided to let me know (after I got there) that she is going to her friend’s house, so my time was wasted and could’ve been more valuable at the Fence Show. But it’s okay because I got home and took a very good and very much needed nap.
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