Like most young children, I had a hyperactive imagination that spurred my creativity to flow in everything I did. Drawings with spectacles of colors, lines that had no clear direction, but seemed to know exactly where they were going, sculptures that weren’t just blobs of Play-Doh. I had the creative liberty to draw, paint, create anything at my will, but as I grew older, I came to be influenced by the objective perspective on life. Soon, it seemed that I had lost the abstract thinking capabilities that I had just years ago. As someone who needs to find a clear purpose to everything and physical evidence that proves this, I never really had an affinity towards the arts. Of course, I’ve been to many a museum in attempts to become culturally enveloped in the bubble that is art, but all that those trips had left me were blank stares at abstract pieces as I stood there wondering how on Earth something so simplistic could be worth millions.

However, as I have learned through not only physically seeing the pieces done by Nicholas Barbonaro, but also through personal interaction with the artist himself, I have come to a simple conclusion: The true value of art lies within the meaning of how the product came to be produced. One of his larger pieces, entitled “Welcome to my Home”, for example, held significant meaning behind the seemingly simplistic work. The work was inspired by the desire of all young adults to be free in an unjudging world and how they execute this desire upon attainment of freedom. Barbonaro compares it to the sentiment that is embodied by the independence of living as a college student, free from the watchful gaze of parental figures, where students are free to live by their own accord. The individual depicted is sassy in attitude and demeanor, gushing out an aura of “if you don’t like it, don’t step through my door”. By creating the work on a legitimate vintage door only adds to the appeal of the piece itself, making the metaphor being portrayed more literal. Within the details of the piece itself, even, the small pepper seeds incorporated throughout the piece adds a nice touch as the mixed media conjoins into something so beautiful. Truly, I have found a new appreciation for art, that would thus not have become apparent had it not been for garnering the first person perspective of the artist himself.