On Sunday we went to the Arpino Dance Festival at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan. The weather wasn’t too bad getting there apart from some light rain. Our train went out of service the stop right before St George which was annoying but luckily a bus arrived basically right away that we took to the ferry instead. We arrived at the theater with most of the class.
I had a really good seat. I was close to the stage but not so close that I had to look up to watch. I was pleasantly surprised by the show because it was a ballet. My favorite of the four acts was the second to last. It was so satisfying to watch and the dancers were so talented. I loved the costume design of the first act, it reminded me of classical ballets. The most striking act with the best music to me was the last one, it was so cool to see so many dancers working together. Overall, I liked the show a lot more than I expected to and was happy I went.
The weather on the way back was a lot worse and there were significant bus delays but I eventually made it back home.
First off, if anyone ever even SUGGESTS driving into the city, They are severely wrong. I shall never complain about a commute on New Yorks public transportation again. Going to this art fair on a Sunday morning seemed reasonable enough, tell me why every driver in Manhattan was in their car and not knowing how to DRIVE. Taxi cabs just stop, for no reason AT ALL, people rush into intersections and screw everyone else, and don’t even get me started on the nerve of damn pedestrians and bicyclists. Also parking?? Not a chance dude. My families car is a larger SUV, so the normal parking garage fees are now tripled because “Its an oversized vehicle”. If you have to park it in a spot anyway, why does the size of the vehicle matter, it’s not like it’s a giant bus. Ridiculous I say
On to the fair itself, The ticket price alone made this the unaffordable art fair. The “lovely” security guard at the door decided that there was no student discount… thanks dude. $40 later…and a very full elevator ride… we make it to the fourth floor. My mother and I were handed maps of everything. I won’t even lie, I didn’t understand a second of that map. I kept turning the paper around hoping it would make sense but in the end we just kept heading towards the right. Also, I feel like I kept running into the exact same people every step I took, which the amount of uncomfortable eye contact I had with these people is just ridiculous.
The art itself now… What was I even looking at dude? I feel like so many pieces focused on bright colors of shapes, that they all blended together and without looking at the few photos I took, It was all a blur. Some were pretty looking… but who would ever pay that much money for a piece of fabric that looks like a child ate paint, puked it onto the canvas, and rolled around in it. The amount of thousand dollar price tags was so crazy, and the sold signs. I aspire to be as rich as random New Yorkers so I can buy ugly expensive art to show off to my other rich New Yorkers friends.
There was one memorable piece that I thought about on the traffic filled ride home. Ross Bonfanti, what I would do to see what goes through this mans head. A vintage stuffed teddy bear, walking other really old dog stuffies. I thought it was rather cute, but after googling him… why is there so many dead bears?? Why are they made of cement… why does one have nails sticking out of it everywhere? I am utterly terrified to see what is on this mans mind.
Overall, I would say it was most definitely not worth my time, money, or effort, but I now have a favorite artist who creates lovely concrete stuffed animals.
On Saturday 9/6, a bunch of us went to the free art exhibit in snug harbor together and had a really fun time. When I arrived I was somewhat late due to the bus taking forever to get there. Considering that I do live quite a ways away from snug, I tried to leave early and make it but unfortunately that did not help in the end. Luckily, everybody started off in the ceramics room and I was able to join in despite being a few minutes late.
The guy that was leading was pretty cool and the experience was nice. There were times where he showed off some of his work that he done himself and showed us this instrument he made and played it in front of us. It was really cool seeing how vast ceramics is and how it can be used when done properly.
I never done anything remotely close to ceramics ever so it was fun doing it for the first time. I did not expect it to get as messy as it did. I wore a nice hoodie and it get messed up immediately so I was kind of annoyed but it was fine. Towards the end of the experience a lot of people started to freestyle and make their own designs on their pots that they’ve made. Some made the pots different shapes, some made just different works altogether, it was really cool to see the different works that other people made. I chose to add a star onto mine (which took me a little while not gonna lie) and it turned out way better than I expected.
It is not the prettiest but it is still cool in my opinion. I got a lot of compliments on it too. I would like to try it again maybe but I would have to go with friends or something.
After the ceramics I moved on with some other people to different rooms and stumbled upon the painting room. At first I wanted to spectate since I am not the most creative, especially when it comes to anything drawing or painting. However, seeing all the people start to paint and their intense focus, it inspired me to attempt at making my own painting. Spoiler alert: it did not end well at all. I did appreciate the environment of the place however. There was an older lady that was there and she was orchestrating the whole thing which was nice and she was helpful. She even had some of her works on display but they were kind of small and farther away than the actual workshop itself. For the workshop there were statues we referenced off of and I began with a sketch of the statues. I took my time and was very careful with my sketch, but once I started to paint it just kept going downhill from there. That’s when I knew that painting is just not for me and that is ok.
Overall, the entire experience was nice and cool, I would’ve liked to actually take time to analyze the art displays but still I enjoyed my time that I was there for. I am open to explore another event like this again sometime in the future.
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.
On Saturday, I visited the Affordable Art Fair in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. I honestly probably would have enjoyed it far more if it weren’t for the commute itself (not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I absolutely did.) Holy smokes, the commute. Getting to the AAF was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve had this year. Between the R train taking 25 minutes to get to Bay Ridge-86th to the C train–an d I am not exaggerating when I say this–moving through tunnels slower than my 6 month old cousin crawls, I’ve never regretted just paying 8 dollars for any one of the SIM express buses more than I did on Sunday. It’s bad enough already having to cross a harbor just to reach civilization as a Staten Islander, but the MTA’s constant inability to fix its own signal problems or time track replacements correctly certainly doesn’t help.
When I did finally get there, I couldn’t actually do much besides sit in one of those riverside parks by the Hudson. I didn’t have the strength to even get up and observe art after what that atrocious, pathetic excuse of a subway system did to me. As much as I’d like to say that I thought about something, whether it be the river in front of me or the family of geese behind me, I didn’t. I felt exhausted. I did ultimately get up and go to the art fair, however, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Immediately upon entering, there was an array of different cafes lined up, where people were all feasting upon what appeared to..surprisingly..actually be pretty good food. I didn’t have the money for any of those paninis or salads, so I kept going. After showing the staff my ticket, I in return received some puny little Walgreens-esque ticket. Really? You’re going to be selling art pieces worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and you’re giving me a ticket that looks like it was pulled straight from a dollar store? Anyways, I got on the elevator (which was jam packed) and went to the fourth floor, where my journey began.
I have mixed but overall positive reactions about my actual experience at the Affordable Art Fair. When I first got off the elevator and entered a theater-esque setting, I expected for there to be far more. It just turned out to be a lobby, though. After some walking, I found the place where the actual art exhibits were happening, and I was shocked by the complexity of where each piece/collection was located. There was a map, but it resembled a maze and honestly left me more confused than before I saw it. I ended up just starting with whatever piqued my attention first and going about my journey with whatever followed. I was honestly kind of shocked by the sheer density of the exhibits, like there were people, and art pieces, practically everywhere surrounding me. At any given time, two diametrically opposed styles were placed against each other and surrounded by visibly wealthy people bartering or simply taking a look. On one side there were some self-portraits, and on the other, there was some kind of abstract multi-colored clusters of who-knows-what. To be honest, I found a lot of the art to be really appealing to the senses; the majority of it, regardless of whatever message was being conveyed, genuinely looked GOOD. I struggled to find deeper meaning in it…anywhere…because every single piece was either on sale or already sold. It was clear that the vast majority of people were going just to browse for something that they could put up in their living room as a symbol of status or to show off to their friends. All of the art involved was being commoditized, and, even if I didn’t really appreciate that salient theme (or lack thereof) much, I clocked it instantly and went about my visit purely focusing on what appealed to me visually. I did struggle to understand what exactly caused certain art to clearly sell for far more (as there was a section specifically for art under $1000), but maybe it was just all of those rich people bidding against one another. Maybe the shallowness of the whole experience and the lack of meaning ANYWHERE wasn’t helped by the sheer quantity of works on display, but I nonetheless enjoyed taking a gander at a bunch of pieces that wanted to be sold and hoisted in some 2 bedrooms on Roosevelt Island. Overall, 7/10. I’d say the commute and $40 I had to pay (which I didn’t even know I didn’t have to pay until it was casually mentioned in seminar long after I bought the ticket) was worth it, mainly because the artwork jumped AT me with flashy visuals. Call my liking towards the pieces shallow, but I probably would have been far more aggressive with the lack of meaning if it hadn’t been for my getting there completely exhausting me.
I went to the Art Lab at Snug Harbor. Specifically, I did Ceramic handbuilding, which I chose by randomly walking into a room and seeing familiar faces there. We worked with self-hardening clay, which hardens after about a week. For regular classes they use a kiln and the other type of clay. People in the room were making a pumpkin; I joined them.
Our instructor/teacher told us about his classes, which made me understand that this art lab is made for promoting art classes in their art school. This made me feel a bit bad since I had no intentions of joining their school, and the instructor was very nice.
Apparently, I wasn’t very good at handbuilding because we had to make a sphere first, and the teacher told me about 7 times to make it round. Honestly, I disagree a bit because pumpkins are a bit flattened on top and bottom, but I’m not gonna argue that my pumpkin was great. I think my classmates didn’t see the great idea and execution behind my pumpkin, but I don’t blame them.
I had to leave sooner to make it on time to my engineering class, so I didn’t get to finish the pumpkin and had to rush to CSI with not fully washed hands from the clay.
I went to the Art Lab at Snug Harbor on September 13th and attended the sculpting lab. There was a list given to me upon signing in for the event that told me what they offered, such as painting, photography, and of course, sculpting, and I picked what the lab I did randomly.
The lab itself was enjoyable: the man running it was kind and welcomed anyone who wanted to participate, and he gave you the suggestion of what to sculpt, a pumpkin, but let you do whatever you wanted. I chose to do the pumpkin, and began to roll, dig, and sculpt the clay into its final shape.
The clay had to be wet to shape, and after wetting it and rolling it into a ball, I had to hollow it out and then I carved a jack-o-lantern face into it and made it a top.
I think I managed to pick the messiest lab because my hands were caked in clay for the whole time I was sculpting, and even after washing my hands there was still clay left on me.
I enjoyed the process of making the pumpkin, but if I ever do something like this again, I will choose a less messy lab.
I chose this protest art piece because it’s message is one I feel very strong about and I love the way in which it is portrayed through this painting. It can be seen that there are tons of dead bodies lumped together, all under a pedestal/column, holding the all mighty, a revolver. It is placed so high and on what appears to be almost a silk pillowcase, painting the true imagery of how guns have been honored or regarded as having more value than human lives. The artist, Juan Pablo Ruiz, commonly creates art that depicts allegories revolving around our nation’s politics and violence. This art was created in 2020, which is well known to be a time of extreme fear and violence throughout the entire world. Especially with the rise of publicity on Black Live’s Matter protests due to the increase of gun violence and shootings, like George Floyd.
I would say that this piece is still extremely relevant today and sadly will be for many centuries to come. Just recently with the school shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado and with the statistical amount of gun violence deaths since 2020 being 223,926, not including the numerous amount of deaths still occuring day to day. Therefore, it is evident that this art piece is evident to be within today’s daily life.
This piece belongs to street artist Shepard Fairey. The name of the piece is Guns and Roses and was used to protest gun violence. The artwork was created in 2006-2007 and shows two types of guns with flowers in their barrels to show that we should be choosing peace over violence.
I feel that this piece is still relevant today because of the problem of gun violence and the need for gun control. There have been lots of mass shootings that have happened, and this poster can be used to show that we should choose peace over violence and turn instruments of harm into symbols of life and beauty.
Banksy’s mural of a judge beating a protestor with a gavel, located on the Queen’s Court Building in London, September 8th 2025.
This mural depicts a judge beating a protestor with their gavel, beating the protestor enough to cause deep red blood to splatter on his sign, while the rest of the image is in black and white.
There are many layers to this mural: On the surface, it is a timeless piece, demonstrating the tendency for the law to silence what it cannot handle, or what it disagrees with; however, within context, it is both a social and political commentary.
The mural was made within the context of the current conflict occurring in Gaza, and its influence of global politics, in particular on protests and support groups.
Banksy created this mural to protest the UK designation of a Palenstinian support group as terrorists, leading to arrests of the members and other protestors.
The judge represents the Court’s choice to effectively legalize the abuse and silencing of those in support of Palestine, with the protestor themselves representing those oppressed.
The blood being the only color in the otherwise black and white work highlights the importance of the blood, showing the injury given by the Court to the freedom to express support for Gaza.
The blood also more broadly represents the continued abuses of the courts across time.
The use of black and white makes neither the judge nor the protestor specific enough to belong to any place or time, allowing anyone to see themselves and their oppressor, their struggle, expressed within the work.
This mural was created to demonstrate the current systematic censoring of anything deemed taboo or against the current political agenda: globally, regionally, or domestically.
The work was further enhanced when it was washed off the building; the building is a protected site, so the unlicensed mural was not something approved.
However, the removal of this mural highlighted one very important fact of protest and progress: the faces, names, and even specific details of an event may be lost to time or censorship, but the general shape, the outline of those before us, their effort, never fades.
It continues to inspire us and shows us what was so that we can bring forward what should be.
