Last night there was a Rose event where the artwork of Nicholas Carbonaro was shown to the Rose community. The artwork was very unique, some pieces being black and white drawings of figures, while others being colorful shapes and lines on t-shirts. The artwork was interesting and captivating, encompassing certain social issues on beauty standards that we as a whole do not really discuss. In a series of work, Carbonaro drew abstract, surrealist depictions of people on the Subway with faces that were unsymmetrical and slightly askew. His reasoning for creating these was his realization that our difference and imperfections are what make us human. No one has a perfectly symmetrical face, even though we believe that beauty can be relative to how “normal” one looks. His past surgeries and health problems also influenced his work, as he channeled his frustration through a healthy, creative medium. Carbonaro also explained his commercial success as a stylist for some plays around New York and had images of his designs and stylings displayed on the walls.

Hearing his story about never giving up on creativity was inspiring. As someone who loves looking at and creating art, but never really having the time for it, I feel like I don’t have a consistent outlet for creativity. I definitely want to commit more of my time to the arts, such as taking another class in AAP or joining art focused clubs around campus.

His art is definitely not for everyone. It isn’t really a pretty picture, but almost a little distorted. It is definitely captivating in its own way. The work makes you think about what he might have been thinking when he was creating these pieces or how much frustration he felt for others. The intricate line work and continuous tribal designs in some of his work were very mesmerizing and beautiful to look at.