Last week I attended the opening of Rose Dining’s new installment of works by Nicholas Carbonaro. Roaming around the room, at first I was confused by the collection of works on the wall. The artist used a variety of media, from sheet paper and ink to t-shirts and dye. Despite the variation in the platform that the art was displayed and created on, each piece was focused on the human. Most of the art took an interpretive view on the face, with great asymmetry and interesting details added in.

To me, one piece seemed to be different from the others. Whereas the other pieces included a lot of detail and often lacked color, this one was vibrant and more simple. This makes sense with the title of the piece, Silhouettes. However, if I wasn’t told that this work was made by the same artist, I never would have guessed it. I think this is interesting with Nicholas’s overall message- that art and creativity is used by everyone and in many different ways. He embodies this not only in his work, but his whole life with his pursuit of creative work. Just like his pieces are all diverse and creative, his jobs are like that too. Nicholas brings his creativity into creating wax figures, photography, painting, hair cutting, and more. To me, this is inspirational. No matter what he does he brings his passion into it. It is lucky to be able to make a living off of your passion, and I am happy that he was able to share it with us in Rose.