Last Sunday, I went to my first art workshop (I think?). I used to spend much more time on my artistic endeavors, but have cut back greatly in the past few years. I was even considering taking an art class at Cornell to get back into creating art on a more regular basis, something I had done for years up to a certain point in high school, when it ended kind of abruptly. My experience at this workshop was definitely unexpected.

I had attended the art reception at the beginning of March for House Fellow Nicholas Carbonara’s art in the Rose dining hall, where he talked about the asymmetries of people on the subway. At the workshop, he spoke some more about his experience working with the details of hair and the importance of experiencing things not through the lens of a digital device. While there was colored paper and markers provided, Nicholas encouraged those who weren’t comfortable with drawing to write about their observations. He told us to not just focus on the models, friends and dogs he had brought along him, but to other people in the room and how they react.

Once the music started, we were left to our own observations. I think it took a few moments before anyone actually put something down on paper, but the models were in their element and moving around. The first thing I sketched was of the fluid motion of the models moving to the music, but was then quickly drawn to the various resting positions the models slipped in and out of. I hadn’t considered the variety of positions in which someone can look relaxed, but I filled up a decent amount of space with different relaxing body positions.

I then started to focus more on the hands, especially after one of the models clapped loudly, slightly startling all of us who weren’t expecting such a stark break to the scene. Hands themselves can capture a lot of emotion and I started to fill up another page with sketches of different hand positions – hands holding things, hands tensed up, hands reaching, hands pushing, hands supporting. This made me think back to an old friend’s AP Studio Art concentration portfolio about hands in during different memorable moments. Before I knew it, an hour’s time was up and I had been able to release myself from my everyday worries.

The session ended with some very insightful conversation about just life in general. One big thing was about engaging with other people. The model who was in a wheelchair talked about his experience with a sort of offensive-defensive approach people have when they look at him, something I definitely felt but tried to fight during the session. Your physical appearance commanding attention is powerful and a good way to start to engage with people. Along with this was the fact that kids are innocently authentic, and do things that we find outrageous, only when we look at things hypercritically. This bled into something another participant brought up about trying to get to a relaxing mindset because of all the daily stresses we experience at Cornell and how taking too long to relax can also be stressful. One thing that was suggested was to take even the short moments walking between classes to be self-centered – to take back that moment and place yourself first instead of obsessing over other things.