Author: Nicholas Nigro

This is my identity mask. I included a bunch of different things that I like to show that this is what makes up my personality. I included the Yankees logo because I am a diehard fan and talk about them probably every day. I included references to two of my favorite artist/ bands which is Mac Miller and Radiohead. I finally included references to two of my favorite manga in Chainsaw man and Berserk. I wanted to draw everything on the mask, then outline them in black to make them stand out and give it a black and white feel. I honestly wanted to draw more stuff but I didn’t have room to add anything else. It is also extremely difficult to draw on a curved, non flat surface like a face mask.

Last Saturday we went to the Lincoln Center to see La Boheme. This was my first experience with an opera. The Lincoln Center was very cool and I liked the inside of the theater we were in.

There were subtitles on all the seats which was actually pretty cool as I thought that I would just have to make do with the opera being in Italian. As for the actual opera, it was a very impressive performance. All the actors were amazing and I think the way all the set changes were done was very cool. With this being said, I just do not enjoy an opera as a form of telling a story. Maybe this would change if I found the right opera, as this opinion is based off of just La Boheme, but I think I prefer other ways to tell a story to something like an opera. The same goes for the movie Rent. It’s pleasantly surprising and I enjoyed it more than I thought. It was also cool to see parallels between the opera and movie. However the musical aspect of it just doesn’t do it for me. I just prefer other ways to tell a story. I did like however some of the small changes in the story. In the La Boheme Rodolfo is the one driving the interaction between him and Mimi, however in Rent Mimi is the one that is more assertive. It is also interesting how in La Boheme Mimi is the only one suffering and eventually succumbing to consumption. However in Rent, many of the main and supporting characters are effected by aids which gives a different feel to the story and goes insight to the aids epidemic that occurred.

Last class we had a zoom call with punk rocker tattoo artist Rich Stremme. Of the three topics he could’ve talked to us about, the class decided on his experience with tattoos. To be honest I had never cared for tattoos. I think they’re cool but the permanence of them always turned me off. However I think Rich gave some cool insight into the field. I never even considered that tattooing had a history, but Rich made a cool slideshow that showcased it. There are also many different type’s of tattooing and I love the idea that it has different styles depending on where in the world you are. Another interesting aspect was the underground tattoo world. Rich said that this is a good place to start when entering into the tattoo world, which is something I wouldn’t think to ever do. Rich told us that he got his first tattoo young, but didn’t get into actually being a tattoo artist till much later. This is nice to hear, because a lot of people will write something off because they feel as thought they are too old, but Rich still decided to take apprenticeship.

Overall it was a fun call and I learned a lot.

Last week everyone in the Macaulay class of 2029 went to the Brooklyn Museum in the evening. It was nice that transportation was provided for us, it made the whole process a lot easier. As for the actual museum it was way bigger than I expected it to be. I don’t think I had ever actual seen the Brooklyn museum so I was impressed. We only were able to look at one floor but there were still cool things on it. The paintings in the museum were very impressive, I liked them more than the ones I saw at the Whitney. It was fun to walk around with everyone and I was able to get out of my night class which was a nice bonus. This trip makes me want to actually see the Brooklyn museum not to experience all that it has to offer rather than just one floor.

On Sunday we went to the Joyce theater to see a performance. I had never been to a performance in a theater like this so I didn’t know what to expect. A positive is that even though the weather wasn’t that nice, it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. When we got to the theater I had a seat in the very first row. This was kind of annoying because I had to look up to see the different performances but I was able to make do. When the actual performances started I was pleasantly surprised with how it was. It had three couples coordinated by color who were dancing. Something I realized was how physically fit you have to be to do something like this. There was so much running around and being so close we could hear the heavy breathing of the dancers. The second performance was also really good. This one had more of a story line to it. It had a guy playing double bass and I thought this was really cool with how skilled he was at it. Whenever the dancers got close to the edge of the stage, we could see the beads of sweat fly off of them and they got dangerously close to our seats. This wasn’t very cool but I don’t think I was hit. The third performance was the most simple, being just two people, but it was just as good, if not better than the first two. The two dancers had really good synergy in the underwater scene. The final performance was probably my favorite one. This one had different parts in it because of how many people were involved. The music during this was my favorite part of the whole show, especially the music during the second act of this final dance. I really loved how it sounded. All in all it was a fun experience and I’m glad I went, despite thinking I wasn’t going to enjoy it at first.

This past Saturday I went to the affordable art fair in the city. My dad picked me after I had work and we drove into the city to visit the fair. There was more traffic than expected but we still made it there by 4 pm. The fair was pretty cool and while some of the art pieces were somewhat affordable, lots were in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Even though we couldn’t buy anything it was cool to see all the different pieces, and the artist who were trying to sell them. I would say the fair was bigger than I expected but I had never really been to an art fair before so I didn’t know what it would be like. There was one really cool painting that was of a large tree. The tree looked like a cherry blossom but I’m not exactly sure. But the way the leaves or blossoms were painted looked really cool as the painter just took daps of paint and put them on the canvas. There were more pictures from this artist using the same method but to me this was the standout one. All in all it was a really fun experience and I’m glad that I was able to go. It was also my dad’s first time going to an art fair and he found it to be really fun as well. After we left the fair we got something to eat in Brooklyn then went home. I’m glad I went and it was definitely fun.

The image above is a photo of “Guernica.” This is a piece by Pablo Picasso and it is meant to be an anti-war piece, highlighting the terrors of war. Picasso painted this as a reaction to the Nazi bombings on the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. This became one of Picasso’s most famous and influential works, even becoming one of the most famous anti-war art pieces in history. The lack of color and chaotic arrangement of the piece is meant to show the brutal reality of war. I think this piece is very relevant in today’s world as political and social unrest of very heightened, which can easily lead to war, something that has already happened in certain parts of the world.

On Sunday I went to the Whitney with my friends. It was kind of a hassle to get there, as I walked to the train station only to find that the train was closed on Sunday. This wasn’t ideal but I carried on and walked to the bus stop instead. After walking I had to wait at the stop for 20 minutes. At this point I was starting to get worried as It was around 11:30 and I was supposed to meet everyone at the ferry for 12. Once I knew I would never make it on time, I called my friend and told him I would take the next ferry. However the bus took a little longer than anticipated, and I ended up boarding the ferry at 1 instead. From here on out my travels were more steady and without delay.

The Whitney itself was interesting. I had never been so it was fun to see something new. We started at the top floor and I didn’t really get a lot of the art up there. This happened with a lot of the pieces. I understand that most of them had meaning behind them but they just did not resonate with me the way they might with other people. While this held true for most of the art, I still enjoyed walking around and looking at all the different pieces. I did really like one painting I saw (I cannot remember what floor it was on) and when I did see it I thought to myself “This kind of looks like one of those Edward Hopper paintings.” It turned out to actually be one of his paintings, “Second Story Sunlight.” I really liked this painting and I liked his other ones displayed. I’m not exactly sure why, but I have always really liked Edward Hopper’s paintings. If I had to give a reason it would probably be the way he uses light and shadow in his pieces. He was definitely the highlight of the Whitney for me.