“Goodnight, Moon”
Ink on Paper
This piece, starting from a blind contour of my face and drawn with only ink, depicts the gentle departure of the moon from a scene of Block Island by night. Pictured in minutia, are the harbors, houses, hotels, and restaurants that litter the Island. The foremost cottage is a place that I spent much of my time on the Island, though it was not that close to the water.
On Block Island, my friends had a habit of calling me moon. After clocking off a 12 hour shift at our restaurant, something about seeing a giant red moon emerge over the ocean begged me to shout “Goodnight moon!” walking out the exit. For the past two summers, I have had the unique privilege of calling the rolling hills and steep cliffs of Block Island my home. When I boarded the ferry for the last time, I knew it was the end of an expository chapter in my life. I was not the young unassuming boy that had once taken a chance on a kitchen job on an island, but someone that boy might not fully recognize, more mature and attune to the virtues and vices of manual labor, love, and adulthood. I learned that work can make any paradise burdensome, and that the sight of the moon on a quiet night can serve as a reminder that just maybe, it all isn’t that serious anyway. “Goodnight, Moon” illustrates this process of transition, leaving a seminal place and simpler time that I still long to be back to, but know it is right and necessary to have left behind. This piece was the first I created in class, and one I spent a lot of time on. The intensive nature of the piece, however, was not burdensome as it felt deeply personal, and owed my time and respect. My style in pen was likely the most developed at the time, and provided me with the confidence early in the semester to venture away from comfortable mediums later down the road.
“Portrait of the Cool Moose”
Acrylic Wall Mural
Painted with acrylic paint on a cement wall in the List stairwell, this piece depicts the late Cool Mouse Robert Healey. Healey represents a fascinating character in Rhode Island politics, running for Lieutenant Governor in 2010 with his “Cool Moose Party” on a platform to “abolish the office’” and receiving 39% of the vote. More recently, Healey ran for Governor in 2014, receiving 21% of the vote. Though passing in 2016, the legacy of his eccentric personality, and vehement opposition of establishment Rhode Island politics, will go down in history. As a Rhode Island native with a keen desire to understand my home’s history as well as shape its future, I find characters like Healey exceedingly worthwhile. This man opposed everything the entrenched political establishment ascribes to in Rhode Island, and was widely adored for his peculiarity. I cherished the opportunity to prolong his memory in a small way at one of Rhode Island’s prized institutions, Brown.
Brown Daily Herald article featuring the piece.
More info on Bob at R.I. Historical Society
Charles Bukowski (2023)
Spray-paint on Cinderblock
The Avenue Concept, Providence
Bob Dylan (2023)
Spray-paint on Cinderblock
The Avenue Concept, Providence
DON’T EAT THAT
Oil Pastel and Maps
This work, created with collage of German street and star maps, is roughly based on “The Fall of Man” by Hendrik Goltzius. The image is the first woman Eve, as she picks fruit from the tree of knowledge at a serpent’s behest. She turns back with teary eyes that match the complexion of the dastardly things God warned her away from.I am not entirely sure why the story turned so Biblical in this piece. I started out wanting to practice my portrayal of figures, and felt an epic moment of human religious history a good choice. Looking back however, I had actually read the genesis story in a Bible study a few weeks earlier. This discussion arose about the relationship between the serpent and Eve. Was it truly Eve’s fault that the serpent had deceived her? And at the end of the day, what was her sin in eating from the tree of knowledge? Curiosity? The use of maps as a collage for the background yields a great deal of interpretive value. Especially the contrast between the organization of human knowledge and civilization in the street maps, and the deep abyss of the constellations in the star maps. Perhaps looking out to the stars, beyond the life of work and pay is the true freedom. Perhaps also this is a step we all must take to be truly human. Even though street maps of our lives tend to label the forbidden fruit as “Bad,” this is the fruit that is usually the sweetest.
“You Look like a Gangster!” (2023)
Spray-paint on Cinder Block
The Avenue Concept, Providence
My Attempt at a Tag (2023)
Spray-paint on Cinder Block
Kurt Vonnegut and Jean Paul Sartre (2023)
Spray-paint on Cinderblock
The Avenue Concept, Providence – Early Days
Nicholas George Sanzi 