Claudia Parducci

Doug Milford at Two Coats sez “good art can have multiple sources of meaning” that “may or may not be apparent or even deliberate, but they make up the work’s internal structure and shape its style.” Claudia’s work (below) is engaged with and by some diverse material which no doubt inspired such solid prose.
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#claudiaparducci

Scrappy artists!

Regular readers will know that I am a member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid. For the past two years, this artist-run organization has been transformative for my creative practice. Through TSA, I’ve developed real skills—exhibition development, installation, collaborative leadership—and connected with a community of independent artists working toward something meaningful together.

No exhibit happens without resources. And while we do a lot with grit and will power, we do need funding. This year we are hosting our first-ever benefit exhibition in NYC on October 9th. I rarely use this blog for this kind of appeal, the exception being when artists really do need support. I’m sending this today because I genuinely believe this event is worth your time and consideration.

TSA is artist-run and volunteer-powered, which means every ticket directly funds exhibition programs across our five locations nationwide. For those of us that live in or near NYC and can make it to the event, over 100 artists from across the country have donated original works that are seeking new stewards.

How it works:

Hoagie Level tickets ($500) ticket to the party and you choose exactly which piece resonates with you. Thank you so much to anyone who can give at this level!

Hero Level tickets ($300) ticket to the party and get you a curated selection from our collection.

Just wanna party and network and see the works! Sub Level tickets ($50) gets you a ticket to our party on October 9th. Plus, use code FRIENDOFTSA for 10% off when you get your tickets at givebutter.com/tsabenefit25.

Can’t make it to NYC but still want to purchase an artwork? No problem, we’ll ship your selected artwork to you.

And if you don’t live in NYC and want to support TSA (yall know how I feel about NYC and the Arts…) buy one for a friend who lives in the City and can go! Seriously!!!

Also and… if you’re an artist in the Southeast please consider applying to our open call!

Occasions

Today I begin my 52nd trip around the sun. A little context for why I am thinking about how we assign importance to occurrences, and mark the passage of time.

“Occasion” like so many English words and phrases has multiple uses of course. “A special occasion” or “on the occasion of” or “I had the occasion to,” etc . Occasions- noting and referring to them more specifically- show or reveal the outlines of how we see ourselves in our own story, which is shaped by our relationship to time as we both remember past events and have hopes for the future.

When we refer to “an occasion” we are noting that we have “marked” a moment in time, or, in the case of ceremonies and celebrations, multiple moments over sometimes long periods of time. A painting is a way of marking the passage of time also. I should clarify that I’m talking about how I feel about abstract painting. One of the ways I’m giving in to nostalgia this weekend is looking through my slide library, which I can do because I still own a light table (I just admitted I’m 51). I found images of work I was making in the late ’90s “about” mapping, conflating wood grain forms with contour maps, which are both snapshots of geologic time. I was mostly just pointing at painting as a record of its own creation.

The (poorly photographed) “map” works were probably, OK, *definitely* artist statement cover for my formalist tendencies. Maps and mapping are pretty rich terms for those of us who are part of the first generation of art students to get educated almost exclusively by postmodern era instructors. On this occasion of reflecting about the past, specifically on my college (over)education, I can see, as the artist I am today, how that facet of the development of my practice shapes my relationship to and wariness around plenty of concepts. Not just maps and mapping. I catch myself constructing an argument as if I’m arguing with some of “them,” pretty regularly, especially when I engage with topics like progress and universal humanity. It’s been a bit of, while not rebelliousness (no artist apologizes for *that*), definitely a reaction on my part, which comes with some of the feelings, as the kids say.

I don’t think mine is a unique situation, to value the existence of an institution like “Art” and also to have been drawn into its dynamic of simultaneously venerating and eschewing the past. It’s almost like a parent-child-family sort of relationship to the past and future. Our weird little village is, well… BTW, “yes” it’s totally one of many contradictions that animate and motivate me that I have developed an academic approach of using words, while having and expressing resentment towards the Academy. Maybe that’s just a way of saying I’m bought in on this idea that I’m an Artist with a capital “A” though- I mean the resentment of my elders, not the snootiness. Maybe that too, though…

Anyway, a birthday is an occasion as experience filtered through memories of past, similar experiences. Its shape is sort of wild if you think about it that way. Part of the context for these reflections on the passage of time and memory is that I’m working on a collaborative piece about memory, specifically nostalgia, and the way it is a broken map, but, that’s a blog for another Sunday. Be good to each other lovelies.