LUMINOUS AFTERIMAGES Light Painting Exhibit — Opening & Interactive Demo

Explore the idea that every action, every imagining leaves a trail in the form of light and color captured with long exposure photography

LUMINOUS AFTERIMAGES is a collection of 16 Light Painting photographs that invite you to explore the idea that every action, thought and imagining — in the form of energy, light and color — leaves a trail of its existence, its expansion over time and its intertwining with every other action, thought and imagining.

A featured image — and a particularly exciting project unveiling — is the “1901 E. Brush Shipwreck Light Painting” that occurred on the beach at Hallock Landing in Rocky Point. The idea to invite the public to help “unearth” the 60-foot schooner with a unique "living history" art-making experience came to fruition in the Fall of 2025 in partnership with the Rocky Point Historical Society.

It is further coordinated with the library display case featuring actual timbers recovered from the Shipwreck on loan from the Hallock Homestead & Museum.

Light Painting as a vehicle for exploring local folklore and recently rediscovered lineage, suggests that human stories have a lingering presence long after they slip from direct view. Sometimes remaining completely intact just beneath the surface of our consciousness (or beach sand) waiting to be seen and told again.

OPENING RECEPTION, TALK & PARTICIPATORY DEMO
FEBRUARY 1, 1–3:30pm

You are invited you to be part of a mesmerizing interactive art experience. Whether just curious or a creative thrill-seeker, this is your chance to learn the secrets behind ‘painting’ the night with light, color, movement and your wildest imagination.

This hands-on learning program is your chance to play on a luminous canvas where there are no mistakes, no mess and all are welcome to try it. Family friendly for all ages and abilities. No prior photography experience necessary and light tools will be provided. Reception to follow with light refreshments.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Alina Wilczynski is a Light Painting artist, an Adjunct Professor of Photography at Farmingdale State College (SUNY) and a Teaching Artist developing custom residency programs at middle and high schools across Long Island. She also leads professional development workshops with teachers, community groups and hobbyists, creates commissioned work for brand marketing, and exhibits her artwork throughout the NYC area. In 2025 she wrote and produced the 250-drone Drone Show Finale for the Nikola Tesla Science Center’s Annual Summer Expo, which wowed a record-breaking crowd of nearly 3,000 spectators.

Blending traditional camera work with modern light tools, video- and sound-interactive software and projection mapping, Wilczynski loves inviting others, including visual and performing artists, historians, environmentalists, multi-lingual learners of all ages and abilities (and sometimes the unsuspecting public) to be part of mind-blowing immersive art experiences.

For three consecutive years, she has been a featured artist at the MoCA Lights Projection Festival that turns downtown Patchogue into a week-long open-air urban gallery of light art. Last year, she turned the historic two-story Romanesque Revival United Methodist Church (built in 1889) into an interactive canvas for spectators to paint onto with light. The previous year, she turned the entire 40ft-wide glass façade of the Patchogue-Medford Library on Main Street into an attention-getting interactive art-making canvas.