ROVENA PASSERO
Counselor, Career Services, WBR Campus
Inspired by the beauty of nature and the world.
RICHARD LOVAS
Faculty, ONL Campus
Digital picture from our over the water bungalow in Bora Bora from Lemoana resort
JUANICE MICKLES
Student, ONL Campus
Nature is wondrous! The Central Park Conservatory Garden is open to the public after being shut down for months. Happy birds, butterflies and bees were aflutter in late August.
BONNIE LAFAZAN
Library Director, WBR Campus
Walking along the path and see ahead that change is coming!
CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN
Graduate Student, Veteran, WPK Campus
Taking pictures from a unique perspective and sulking up the moment make me forget about the anxiety I sometimes have.
BONNIE LAFAZAN
Library Director, WBR Campus
Seeing, feeling and capturing the colors of Fall.
MERYL HERMAN
Alumna, NYC Campus
I took this photograph of an ordinary day in NYC at the meatpacking district before COV-19 and NYC became a ghost town.
JUANICE MICKLES
Student, ONL Campus
A farm in Callicoon Center, NY in early October. The Fall season in upstate New York is one of the most beautiful times of the year. The skies are a mix of grey and blue. In this particular picture, the sky was showing signs of an incoming storm.
SUNDER NAGARAJAN
Associate, WPK Campus
It was a cold evening one Saturday in October and I was contemplating the days events. The maze of branches with the light filtering in gave it an illusion of a sunset. Being a seeker of the truth - it got me thinking that life is an illusion - your perception is only as good as state of your mind at any given time.
ANGELINE GIL
Student, WPK Campus
This shot explores how technology, wires, and cables have taken over our natural environments. We are able to live around such advances, with nature's beauty still having the capability of being appreciated amongst the outdoor cables of the city.
ANGELINE GIL
Student, WPK Campus
This shot depicts so an array of growing flowers, ready to reflect its beauty to the world.
AGATHA LUIS
Student, NYC Campus
I took this photo one night after leaving class. Location: Across from Bryant Park & School of Optometry.
D'ARCY ORTIZ
Alumna, NYC Campus
This was taken at the Brooklyn Pier with the inspiration being architecture.
ANGELINE GIL
Student, WPK Campus
This photo was captured through an old dusty window during a whimsical-looking sunset. It depicts a beautiful image within the window, expressing how beauty can be found in sometimes the most ugliest-looking objects. The amazement is what lies within.
WILFREDO LEBRON
Student, NYC Campus
Living today
GINA OKUN
Assistant Dean of Online Education, WPK Campus
Renewable energy technology is important and should be utilized whenever feasible.
TRACY MIRANDA
Graduate Student, ONL Campus
My inspiration (passion)
ALMA TORRES
Student, NYC Campus
Black and white photography: family, father and son, fun, contrast, love, quality time
ANGELINE GIL
Student, WPK Campus
This shot was captured during a sunset where the clouds reflected a pink hue, splashing a pink, purple, and blue tint in the sky.
RUKAYAT OLAYINKA OLAWOORE
Student, Medical Billing and Coding, ONL Campus
Acrylic on canvas; This is something I love to do for fun
PAMELA SNYDER
Faculty, ONL Campus
Charcoal pencil on drawing paper; Shakespeare is the inspiration of this character study. It is bad luck to say "Macbeth" in the theater, so when it is being produced, everyone involved refers to it as "The Scottish Play" to avoid any unnecessary bad luck that goes along with the association of the name.
NOLA RAFF
Student, ONL Campus
Oil Painting; The goal of this painting was to express femininity, sexuality, and power in a subtle and retro style.
JAYOUNG KANG
Student, NYC Campus
Acrylic; My situation at this time was a time of new challenges at the same time as I started something new. So I used yellow and blue and expressed my hope, happiness, good feeling, pleasant communication, and creativity through this painting.
SHARMILEE
Student, WBR Campus
Acrylic on canvas; As above so below. Gravity is the bond that holds us grounded to the earth. It is invisible but expresses itself through objects
TRACY MIRANDA
Graduate Student, ONL Campus
Crayons & Markers; Halloween October Theme 🎃
LIUGU-LANG DISLA
Student, PAR Campus
Canvas, with silicone, acrylic paint, decorative fillers, mod podge, glitter, and coarse stone granules; In my paintings I use the silicone gun technique, and applying crush glasses, fillers, and other products. Also the use of glitter to highlight my paintings.
MICHELLE MEDINA
Student, NYC Campus
Acrylic paint on canvas; When I began this painting. I was dealing with friends and a parent that was in abusive relationships. I wanted to dedicate this painting to those who have been a victim of domestic violence which is why I chose purple underwear. Purple is the designated color for the domestic violence ribbon. As time went on I felt this was beyond domestic violence, but I wanted to dedicate the painting to everyone who ever been through something traumatic. I used puzzle pieces to show a respect to all the different women. I wanted to show unity. We need to be there for our women. We need to show we care and that no one is alone. In painting this I wanted to show that I stand with you all.
VERUSKA CARBAJO
Student, WBR Campus
Gouache paint; This piece is for the people who love admiring beautiful landscapes. And the colors earth tend to give us. This is for people who admire nature.
SHARMILEE
Student, WBR Campus
Acrylic on canvas; A waltz amongst chaos. Love wins. An abstract painting representing the idea of love admits the chaos and negativity that we experience these days. With love and affection a sense of strength and rebirth presents itself.
WILLIAM HUGHES
Student, WPK Campus
Pencil & Ink; I like to draw the profile of people's faces, and Nipsey's face stricture is unique. For example, his cheekbone sticks out where it says, "God Will Rise." That part is very defined, plus the beard and braids. I believed I could do it, and that's what gave me the motivation. What inspired me was when I saw an image of Nipsey Hussle facing forward how it is in the drawing. Unfortunately, He passed away. I didn't listen to his songs at first, but I do now and have grown an appreciation for it. I started off outlining his face and jacket, then shaded with different numbered pencils. After I created a grid or a checkerboard representing his brand, the Marathon, I shaded some in lightly with a pencil, and the rest I stained with coffee to give it a vintage look. His collar was initially white, but I changed it to blue because Nipsey wears blue a lot. Lastly, I erased some areas to give it a cleaner look.
LIUNGU-LANG DISLA
Student, PAR Campus
Glue gun and other materials to enhance the painting.
LORENA RAMOS
Student, ONL Campus
Acrylic on canvas; I love abstract, figurative art, and different other forms, I also love vivid colors, most of my art works are linked to my own emotions, personal experiences that marked my life
ANNA CAMINERO
Student, PAR Campus
Digital animation; I was walking home one night when I saw something glowing at the corner of my eye, when I turned my head to see there was nothing but just a cat so I decided to make this animation based on that weird experience.
ALLYHA PHILLLIPS
ALUMNA, NYC Campus
Cartoon art; Make people happy.
GAYITRI NANDAN
Student, NYC Campus
Pumpkins Carving Designs For Halloween
SHARA MAE LINTAG
Student, WPK Campus
Adobe Illustrator; I made this piece right after schools closed down back in March. All the characters represent activities that can be done to keep yourself occupied at home or in the neighborhood! I had a lot of fun designing this during quarantine and I reinvigorated my motivation to keep designing during those hard times.
JAYOUNG KANG
Student, NYC Campus
Inspired by Barbara Kruger's work, she combined it with the subculture, Street Culture. I made my own style of padding and training.
NADINE ELTALKAWI
Student, WPK Campus
Part of the Interior Design project of the Senior Community Center where older adults would congregate to fulfill many of their social, physical, emotional, and intellectual needs. Floor plan designed with AutoCAD, renderings in Rhino.
ANGELINE GIL
Student, WPK Campus
If I Could Go Back in Time
If I could go back in time,
What would I do?
I know, I would look for you.
If I could go back in time,
What would I do?
I’d look in the mirror and reflect on what is true.
I would rise like a phoenix despite your names.
Unashamed of defending myself from your claims.
I am stronger now and that won’t fade.
There is nothing else that I would trade.
My scars are there,
But in my strength, you can’t compare.
So,
If I could go back in time,
What would I do?
I know, I would look for you, I’d look in the mirror, and reflect on what is true!
This poem explores the themes of personal growth and strength during the hardships of life.
TAQUEILLA GREEN
Student, ONL Campus
I Strive
I strive to be better because when I was born the doctors told my mother
that I wouldn't make it.
I strive to be better because when I was born I had to fight the first day of
my life to live.
I strive to be better because I was born different I was like no one but me.
I strive to be better because I watched my mother work hard to give us
everything and she lost it all.
I strive to be better because I want and am going to be a better person to
be humble.
I strive to be and make a difference in this life
I strive because life is not easy and you have to work hard to get where you
want to be.
I strive to be better to finish school and go to college to make something
out of my life to make my mother proud.
I strive to be better to show my mother she made the right decision bringing
me into this world.
I strive to make better decisions in my character and how I impact my
peers.
I strive to be open minded to other people's opinions and feelings to be
charismatic to others' vulnerability.
I strive to keep putting up a fight for my future to be bright, different and
prove myself.
I strive for continuous improvement instead of perfection.
I strive for perfection, but I’m not perfect. But what I can say is my morals
are totally different than any other 18 year old my age now. I look at life
totally different. A whole other aspect. I have different views and morals on
life in general.
When my mom was giving birth to me, she couldn’t move because the pain
was too much. She had a drink of tequila to ease the pain and out I came.
Ever since my mom always said, tequila is the best thing that happen to
her. Which she named me and changed the spelling to keep my name
unique.
Motivation
AIDA BODE
Alumna
Listen
I remember
when I heard
the first heartbeat.
***
I was 5
playing with my doll,
using my father's
stethoscope and was
searching on its plastic body
for a beat.
My grandma had told me
that everyone has a clock
inside their chest
at times it makes
a soft noise
like a cricket in a hot
summer night,
and other times
it just gives up
and e x p l o d e s
like a bomb.
So I was checking
my doll for
a cricket,
or a bomb.
***
It was a winter afternoon
and I was staying
close to the stove
hoping to fool the cricket
and praying for the bomb
to be calm.
But I didn't hear a tick
Poem - a reflection on the duality of human heart.
MERYL HERMAN
Alumna, Health Services Management, Clinical Data Specialist
Nature Day
Clouds as white as snow
Brown hoppy bunnies with no place to go
Red, orange leaves are falling down
While all the people are still in town
Birds are flying high
As trees touch the sky
Bears roaming all over the earth
Children playing in the dirt
Sun burning bright
As the breezes waves thought-out into the night
Sandy beaches laid within the sand
As the planes are waiting to land
Forest trees rustle with the breeze
As the lake is calm with ease
Streams flow down with fish
As families catch them to make their dish
Energy from the nature remains
Even when as it pours and rains
Energy from the sun goes down
As the winds and rain go down
As last it’s time to say goodbye
As the sun comes down from the sky
Inspiration of Nature
STEPHEN WOLF
Faculty, NYC Campus
“Prologue” to Central Park Love Song
One night soon after the ball dropped in rowdy Times Square for 1977, we began our journeys to Central Park. Bo sniffed only a few cold yards ahead keeping close on the unfamiliar blocks of Bleecker Street. It was well-named, Bleecker, though surrounding streets were as badly wounded. Much of the city lay in shambles then, aluminum gates ripped from empty storefronts, dark brick walkups crumbling, graffiti’s mad, white lines over everywhere: in the distance far downtown, the slender shafts of the World Trade Center glittering between the gaps of the potholed cross-streets.
Just before descending the stairs to the Broadway/Lafayette subway station, I fixed Bo on a short leash. From my coat pocket I removed a thin, white, fold-up cane with a bungee cord running through it that snapped open long and straight, put on a pair of Roy Orbison-style sunglasses, then tapped my way downstairs; this late at night fewer people would see us if anything about my plan went awry. The white cane’s red tip touched just to the left and crossed over to the right, always low to the ground to detect a rise or drop. Everything was so dark in these glasses.
We passed the drowsy attendant in the booth as I tugged Bo slightly toward the turnstile and, in character, fumbled a little with the token while seeking the slot: fifty cents a ride back then. Once through, we moved to the uptown tracks, descended the stairs with steady taps, and waited on the empty platform, Bo patient and curious though never having seen anything remotely like a New York City subway platform. Someone hunched in a pillar’s shadow along the downtown side, never looking at us.
Bo was a border collie the color of graham crackers, with a muscular white chest, lively brown eyes, and a floppy ear torn in a fight he picked with Cerberus. He ran free on a college quadrangle fastened to Illinois soy bean fields when he adopted me a decade ago. He ran free ever since until a few nights earlier when I romantically landed us on a battered street of New York’s Lower East Side with no other plan than the next few beats of my restless heart. Though past his prime Bo still needed more than a walk around the block twice a day, so we headed to Central Park. When I felt the cold air pushed through the tunnel by the incoming train I rubbed Bo’s flank, his fur soft as talcum: “It’s okay,” I said just when the leash grew taut as Bo pulled forward, prepared to protect me from any challenge. I had worried Bo might be skittish as a rapid subway rushed toward us, but when the D train burst from the dark tunnel, then slowed with a screech, stopped, and the doors gaped open, Bo confidently guided me inside.
Only a few people were in the car though I couldn’t really look around since I was blind. As the subway clattered and clanked, shimmied and sparked, I saw myself in the reflection of the subway door’s window: wavy brown hair needs trimming, worn black coat, could be taller, and looking unconvincingly blind despite the dark glasses, white cane, and handsome dog.
Before fleeing the Midwest I had mulled over ways to get my old dog to Central Park, nearly four miles from the apartment I had rented. Taxis were expensive and I had low funds and no prospects. With confidence in the one bold, outrageous option, I headed to the medical supply store off campus for a guide-dog harness.
“A dog must be fitted for one,” the pharmacist told me. He was elderly, thin, serious, and I knew Bo would never fool him enough to pass the audition.
“May I see that?” I asked, pointing between the bedpan and catheter at a white cane with a red plastic tip in the display case.
Soon the train came to a gradual, jerking stop at Columbus Circle, the southwest corner of Central Park. The doors opened and three people grudgingly made way as I taped by. Along the platform were other travelers of the night, in couples or alone, and once off the train I vigorously rubbed Bo along his strong neck.
“Good doggy!” and he leaned his weight into me.
I tapped along a trash-strewn, foul-smelling corridor, then down another, wadded, wet newspapers along the rank gutters. Ugly lines, mad and thick, covered cracked, tiled walls, every poster for six-packs and cigarettes, every subway map made useless, and each ethnic group biting into Levy’s rye bread.
I was heading for any exit when suddenly Bo hesitated, narrowed his eyes and sniffed the air, then pulled me in a different direction. Down another dreary, piss-reeking corridor, a lone traveler never glancing at us as Bo kept pulling toward a darkened corner of the station where from a stone staircase cold, fresh air descended. He was heading for Central Park. All exits at Columbus Circle Station lead to the streets above but only one directly to the edge of the park, and that was the one Bo found; he could smell it. We walked up the steps into the cold night, the city bright and churning but a vast plain of darkness to our left which we entered at the first opening in a low stone wall. I broke down the cane and slipped it into my pocket, removed the sunglasses to see better that New York night, then freed Bo an instant before he scampered for a thin grove of trees and I lost him in the dark.
Together we made dozens of visits to Central Park: without him, I another five thousand. This book is what I found in those wanderings.
An introduction to a book on my 42 year relationship with Central Park
AMY SORICELLI
V.P. Career Services, NYC Campus
Take Me With You
I don't leave my head, but it seems you are on a mountain
with just your camera.
You climbed it without a crew, or safety gear.
Your mother didn't know.
I ask myself if the other side of the street would be safer,
better lit.
I wonder if it's worth the extra turn of the block
to see what really happens there.
Then I find you are under the ocean with a turtle,
deciding if his foot is okay, or if the jewels
on the bottom are real.
Sometimes I'll stand before the pesto chicken,
thinking,
each day I have grilled,
and when it's my turn I give the same words in the same order;
an alphabet of lunch.
I heard you just climbed a tree to taste the native fruit,
then sliced it into thin strips with some meat cured by centuries of one family.
I would picture that in my head, too,
if there were room.
I follow a marine biologist on IG who saves turtles and jumps off cliffs. I have a hard time making the switch from AOL
ADSON DENIS
Student, WBR Campus
The Power of a Woman
She has been captured by this flying breathing firing beast yet in her eyes she sees a handsome man.
She’s admiring his exotic body yet deep within is a beast capable of setting a whole country on fire.
The power of a woman is between her legs yet her mouth is her own destruction.
She smells as if she has been bathed in a pool of lilies as her smile that excels the Mona Lisa’s is stronger enough to light the world.
Descendants of Eve who gave Adam the forbidden fruit like Delilah who had lied Samson head on her lap to grant him to the enemy together they hold the key to seduction.
Her tongue carries the venom of a snake though sweeter than honey, her touch feels like heaven but at the end it pierces like an arrow.
The power of a woman is like the hand of a god capable of taming a dragon.
The power of a woman is capable of reaching the dark deep of the ocean yet money is her master.
The power of a woman has no limit enabled to bring any man to his knees yet the last one has the last word.
The power of a woman can conquer the world yet she still doesn’t know it exists.
The power of a woman is what makes a man strong still she realizes it a man will always be a man.
This poem has found its inspiration from the movie "I am dragon"
BERMARY MARTINEZ
Student, NYC Campus
What Do...
What do you think we are expected to do after
You killed one of us?
Nothing
What do you want me to do if I can’t help
The ones that are killed by you?
Nothing
What do you think hurts more
Then killing a colored man?
Nothing
What do you think that can
Refrain you from killing him?
Nothing
What do you want us to do if
We can’t step in to help?
Nothing
What do you get from killing
Us minorities?
Nothing
What do your actions provoke
Us to do?
A lot of things
What do you think in your head
That you decide to kill innocents people?
Nothing
I wrote this because of the Black Lives Matter.
BERMARY MARTINEZ
Student, NYC Campus
When Autumn Comes
When the cold breeze of Autumn comes
I know it’s time for Hoodie SZN
When we have our hoodie on
We feel great. We feel loved.
Our hoodies wrap us with its’ smell
It has the smell of our fried chicken last year.
It still has the stain of the ketchup.
Oh, hoodie I love you so much.
If it wasn’t for the Autumn I would have never met you.
I don’t want the Autumn to leave but
It will because there comes the Wintertime.
WILLIAM HUGHES
Student, WPK Campus
Words are powerful
I don't really care if you try
If you try to hit me up, then I'll decline
because you didn't want me, then why'd you switch sides?
So everything you told me was a lie
Man, your heart was dead
And It was messing with my head
I know your plan was to push me off the edge
But I grew a pair of wings from standing on the ledge
Why do you want to see me in a coffin?
You were sick, and you're the reason that I'm always coughing!
But I'm the wrong one for taking you back so often
If my heart were a diamond, then you would be window shopping
Because you can't buy a thing, this is not an auction
I know you think you can buy it all but its not an option
If I were to let go of myself, I would have nothing
And if I didn't have God, I wouldn't see you plotting
I just want to let you know I see the tree is rotten
If I were to take a bite, it'd make my mouth like cotton
And that's a web that I don't want to get caught in
been tempted, but I'm still cautious
Knowing what the cost is will leave me nauseous
Trying to seduce me with the smooth-talking
With words that have no meaning trying to get me lost in
How exhausting!
Is the energy you put out
You rip the good out
Hard to see your sneaky ways, but to me, it stood out
You put your foot out
while I was walking by
Could've caught me by surprise
You do that once again; there'd be a homicide
It's just a warning in a deadly note
My minds a gun, and this pen in my hand will be the scope
So the moment that you read it murders what he wrote
I'm counting sheep in my sleep; you're trying to be the goat
My mom was a drug dealer; she conceived the dope
Being down and low is what made me believe in hope
That's the only thing I could hold onto like a rope
hanging off a cliff
(Yeah) Get on a boat and then be off a drift
I think I visited Hell when I was off the sh*ts
And that's the reason why I'm off the sh*ts
I called the quits
Wave the white flag
Asking God to save me
I just want my life back
feel it. Then I write that
Put these lyrics in a bottle, throw it in the ocean
Ten years later, some guy finds the bottle floating
He was fishing used the net to grab it, then he opened
flooded with emotion
Saw the person wrote it with devotion
What's the commotion?
his friend said
and then read
The explosion threw her off the ledge
and now she's dead
Damn, I didn't mean to do that
But I guess I am to blame so can you move back
instead of CPR
I looked her right in the soul, and she was deeply scarred
Then she was told
Wake up! You've just been sleeping hard!
The woman rose to her feet after seeing stars
Instead of dying, she's complete but can't remember far
What motivated me was to write about a girl and a relationship that didn't work out because it was one-sided. What inspired me was the saying, "you're too nice." As people, If we're not grateful, we can end up taking advantage of the person who is "too nice." However, the oppressor, in the end, feels the worst. If the person who was getting taken advantage of were to ever speak about it, it would kill them with guilt, but that's not always their intention. I've been in this situation and didn't won't speak up because I thought it would hurt them, but now I feel like things like that should be said to get it off our chest, and it could humble the person who's been taking advantage. My technique was a freestyle one. I got the theme of a one-sided relationship. After that, I just let it flow.