Positivity Art Auction

In the spring 2020 semester, during the COVID-19 crisis, BU Hillel worked with Sam Weinberger, a BU Jewish Leadeship Team member to facilitate the creation of an art competition on Posivitiy. This student-driven project garnered over 50 submissions from a diverse audience of student artists across BU. All types of art was submitted for consideration: visual, written, poems, dance, video, mosaics, and more. We are now sharing a few pieces inspired by this art competition with our donor community – to spread the positive vibes and allow them to purchase these pieces.

How the Auction Works

Scroll through and read about our three amazing pieces/ series for auction. Offer the minimum bid or more if you are inclined too. Email the student directly to place your bid. The artist will be back in touch if they receive a higher bid. By the end of the month, highest bid wins. Purchasing/ Shipping of the piece will be directly through the student artist.

Arist Name: Sam Weinberger (Big Sam), sam21@bu.edu
Graduation Year: 2021
Title of Work: My Quarantine Friend, Triptych Painting
Materials: Acrylic on board
Size: (3)1x4ft,(3×4 ft total)
Starting Bid: $1,000.00

Instagram: @bigsamspaints
Website: Click here

Being 7-feet, I’ve always been fascinated by these majestic animals and certainly relate to them – sticking out like a sore thumb at all times. My work speaks to the idea of just being yourself, and accepting everything in life for how it is, good and bad. This piece is meant to bring positivity and a sense of free will to the viewer. The more-or-less primary palette with warm oranges and cool blues, and a purple/blue giraffe is a representation of positivity and creativity. A hatch mark technique is used to form the giraffe and creates an interesting texture, playing with color theory. The experience up close is different than experiencing the painting further back.

Arist Name: Emily Perelman, eperel@bu.edu
Graduation Year: 2022
Title of Work: These are Strange Times
Materials: Cut Paper
Size: A4, 8.7”x11.69”
Starting Bid: $415.00

Instagram: @emilylynndesign

Description: “These Are Strange Times” is a reflection of my time in isolation and my desire to find some sort of order in chaos. The work itself is composed of tens of separate paper cutouts pieced together by hand, a literal representation of creating “order”. But, I also find order in the creative process. As a student, my work represents meditation to me, a time when I can bring my awareness fully to the physical act of creating. I hope that my perspective can bring a unique sense of contemplation to the viewer as well.

Artist’s Name: Matthew Jeano Guattery, mattguat@bu.edu
Title of Work: Untitled Windows into the Same Narrative
Materials: Watercolor on Paper (approx. 8”x6” for each individual piece within the series) Graduation Year: 2021
Starting Bid: $300

Instagram: @jeano.guatteri

Description: My name is Matthew Jeano Guattery and I am submitting a series of watercolor paintings done on paper. In this series, as well as other pieces within my work I seek to create a diverse high contrast image plane that engages the viewer with familiar illustrative visual elements. With this work I seemed to expand my personal knowledge and abilities with watercolor by engaging with the medium through a central subject. A border that utilizes repetition of simplistic images adds to the symbolic elements of the piece and the overall narrative theme. Although during these tough times we are striving to remain positive, personally I sought to engage with the darker side of current events and the questions rising within society abroad and the individual families spending time together. I hope to observe these hardships objectively and respectively and aspire to champion the global initiative to stay positive and considerate in my own abstract way.