A Rocky Point artist will lead a hands-on light painting workshop at North Shore Public Library in Shoreham on Sunday, Feb. 1, at 1 p.m., coinciding with the opening of her month-long exhibition, “Luminous Afterimages.”
Artist Alina Wilczynski said she enjoys engaging others in the medium.
“I get to experience that wow factor every time I do it with people who have never done it before,” she said. “Anyone can do it, any age, any ability.”
Participants will work with different lights and colors, which Wilczynski projects on a screen for instant results.
The public also participated in light painting last October at Hallock Landing, creating an image of a 1901 shipwreck in Rocky Point in a “living history moment.” The shipwreck incorporates Wilczynski’s interest in history, and she collaborated with the Rocky Point Historical Society.
At North Shore, visitors can see the shipwreck painting along with 16 other light creations by Wilczynski. She said light painting may look futuristic, but it dates back to the 1880s. It uses a long-exposure technique “where you’re opening up the camera shutter for as much as 10 or 20 seconds. And you do it in the dark and any movement of light gets captured as long as that shutter is open,” she said.
The results can be “unexpected, wild or ethereal,” with the power to “conjure up a lot of different emotions.”
Wilczynski learned light painting while studying fine arts at Montclair State University in New Jersey and now teaches it to her own photography students at SUNY Farmingdale State College. Though she initially opened a design firm, the 56-year-old is now focused on light painting.
“I am literally over the moon. It’s become now my primary work,” she said, which she shares with schools and local groups.
For details, visit the library’s website.