While some freshmen spent their summers unwinding before starting college, Bernardo Rodriguez was getting ready for his first art show.

The freshman communications design major from Tarrytown, New York has always had a passion for art, but he does it for the process, not for the result.

“Although it’s my preferred means of expression and my preferred career choice, I don’t take it too seriously,” Rodriguez said. “I have a crazy relationship with art. When I create, I’m not looking at the end result. I’m thinking: ‘How am I going to build myself through the process of this drawing? How will my audience react? Will they hate it or love it?”

Last July, he had his first art show at the H-Art Gallery in Peekskill, New York, and 40 percent of the show’s profits went to Hudson River Healthcare to help find a cure for multiple myeloma. The donation was inspired by his father’s cancer diagnosis in 2014.

But Rodriguez wasn’t in it for the money — he wanted the prestige that came with having his first show.

Rodriguez hails from the Dominican Republic, but it wasn’t until he came to America as a child that he began exploring art. Rodriguez said Dominican culture doesn’t encourage kids to pursue art as anything more than a hobby.

“I didn’t realize that I was good at drawing until I had the comfort and nurturing of American teachers,” Rodriguez said. “I got a lot of support from my teachers and they were always telling each other about me as I went through the school system in Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown.”

Bernardo’s crown jewel is his “Smells Like Teen Spirit” self-portrait, drawn in graphite on a 4-by-6-foot canvas. In the picture, he’s wearing a suit, his eyes are glaring and hands are coming out of his mouth.

“All my artwork can burn, but I’m going to keep this one,” Rodriguez said. “I’m sure I’ll create something that surpasses it sooner or later, but for now, it captures everything I was going for.”

Published on January 12, 2015 at 12:00 am

Contact Momin: mrafi@syr.edu