While I thoroughly enjoyed Nicholas’ work, I was particularly drawn to the portraits on the subway portion. I couldn’t help but notice how all of the faces seemed to portray every unhappy emotion. Like great art does, this brought me back to a few months ago when I was riding the NJ Transit at 7am on a weekday. I found myself surrounded by individuals with headphones in. I couldn’t figure out if it was just the time or if, in general, subway rides are filled with individuals giving off unhappy signals. While I obviously don’t expect to be having a social on the subway, I also don’t see people smiling at individuals when eye contact is made or just observing and being present in the moment instead of staring at a phone. During my 7am ride, I felt down thinking about how these individuals are on this train every morning, M-F; I started to question whether or not this is what I wanted in my future.

All of this thinking came from the time I spent looking at Nicholas’ subway portraits. Across all of his work, I found myself recalling scenarios from the emotions I felt looking at his pieces. I also enjoyed the fairly large painting he did portraying his feelings while recovering from surgery. When he was describing how he felt during recovery, I could see those feelings in the piece itself.