Mineola High School Students Show Off Art Works

A pair of seniors showed off their creative side, at the May 24 meeting of the at the , bringing with them paintings which they had completed during their art courses this year and which were on display at the annual art show at the high school on May 29.

Senior Natalie Leitman, who is planning on going to college of St. Rose in Albany next year, displayed a portrait of a young woman in front of a “STOP” sign with a gag over her mouth.

“It’s pretty much... just how I felt in high school,” she said. “I was bullied a lot and art has helped me to just release some of that stress of bullying and what’s been done. I always use art as my escape and it’s really great to have such an awesome art program in our school district. I’m really upset that I’m leaving, I wish I could stay with them.”

‘Them’ referring to art teachers Kathleen Loughlin and Ginamarie Buongiovanni.

“Students do think that they’re mean and harsh sometimes but deep down they’re only trying to help and it’s definitely a help,” Vincent Tullo said. “They’re not just two mean ladies sitting in the art room evaluating your work, they’re actually like the sweetest people in the school and all they care about is your success.”

Leitman, who wants to go into studio art, added that Loughlin and Buongiovanni’s constructive criticism “has brought us to this level that we’re even shocked that we’re at.” She has also earned enough scholarships through her art to pay for her first 2 full school years at St. Rose.

Up until this year Tullo, who is enrolled at FIT for photography, had never painted before. At the meeting he held the second painting he had ever done – what he called an unfinished work of a bespectacled young man cradling what appeared to be an illuminated full moon in his hands.

“If it wasn’t for the high school art department, I never would have been able to create this,” Tullo said. “The art program in our high school is very good and it’s very broad.”