Honoring Tom Sparacino

I took painting and photo classes from Tom Sparacino, off and on, for the last twenty years. I just heard last night that he passed away, and have been incredibily saddened by the news.

I shared the following on his memorial guestbook, and wanted to post it here too.

I realize that Tom has had a tremendous impact on me-- from the painting instruction to the classroom debate and banter. Tom had a sort of quiet acceptance and welcoming way about him. And we had a good back-and-forth over the years. When I was a new student, sometimes he’d humor me when I would follow him around with my brush in hand, trying to get another question in. Later on, once I’d settled in, he’d pretend to hard-time me for showing up to class late. And then he’d put up with me stretching things out to the last minute, usually being the last one to clean up.

Tom combined painting instruction with a sense of humor, unfiltered criticism (a look at my canvas generated a ‘yech’ kind of sound on occasion), and honest encouragement. Not only did he teach me painting fundamentals-- I can still hear “dark to light” and “don’t make them all the same size and color”-- Tom pushed me and encouraged me until I found my own voice and style. After I had hit on nearly every painting cliche, he kept prodding me, even though I couldn’t understand it at the time.

Until one day I brought in a book of my ‘scribbles’. With his encouragement and help, I began painting my own thing, my own way.

In the last few years, since moving up the peninsula and becoming a mom, I couldn’t make it to Tom’s class anymore. I stopped by once and emailed a couple times, intending to get back in again. I’m bummed I didn’t get another chance. And even though I hadn’t been to class in years, I’m really going to miss it.

I don't think I can articulate, or maybe even realized until just now, how big an impact this little adult ed class and one teacher had on me. While on the one hand, I could say it was just a painting class, it was more than that to me. It was a familiar place I counted on. It was a place I could relax, chat, and express myself.

Even while most of the other students were painting quite traditionally, Tom challenged me and supported me in taking a different, unique path. He opened the door to real expression, and accepted what I cautiously and hesitantly put forth. That's been an invaluable experience and a journey that I'll continue throughout my life.

Recent drawings

Never quite sure what to call these.... "sketch" is over-selling it. "Scribbles" might be closer.

Thin face with words and lights

This is a current painting in-process. It's large format, I think around 32 x 40.


It's a composite of two sketches -- the face alone I did recently, and the background is from a much older sketch. That sketch was done from a photo I took in NY years ago, with a waiter in the foreground, and the menu and lights blurred and creating an interesting background.


I have been using a thin, dry brush technique for this, and kind of like the airy, sheer feeling of it.


It needs a little more paint and depth to be interesting, and yet, I'm reluctant to add more paint and risk losing the current feel of it.

Build a Ladder to the Stars

This is the first painting I've finished in a LONG time. I painted this for Mila and it's hanging in her room now. Sometimes she points at it and says, "I did that." Maybe that means she likes it.

Inspiration was the lyrics of "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan.

"Build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung... "

Rusty Painting

Double entendre there. I am quite rusty, and well, there are some rust tones in this. I found some time to do some painting a few weeks ago. At first, while working away, I thought, "I've got something here. This is going to be cool." I had that exciting, flowing feeling. Then, I thought, "Hmmm. I'm pretty rusty. I'm not too sure about this."

It's abstract, but my underlying ideas are specific. There is a work theme (tied to an image I notice in the parking garage of my office). That's this piece.....

And a motherhood baby theme. This piece:

My reflection at this point is around both the texture and composition of the painting. It feels like two separate paintings, and it's close to being split down the middle (which art-types would tell you is bad-- the eye prefers to see things in thirds).

Here's the full view:

But... maybe that's part of the paint that my brain was trying to make. It's perhaps what I'm struffling with. Work and motherhood -- two parts not easily blended??

But in fact, they are blending pretty nicely. I'm letting this one sit for a while, but I'm thinking that I need to come back to it and bring the two parts better together.

Three Little Birds

Here are three bird paintings I did for my daughter's room. Not my usual stuff, but I wanted some original artwork for her room, and it seemed like I needed something "kid-appropriate."


Mila is actually pretty interested in checking them out-- which of course thrills me. We now say hello and wave to the birdies when she gets up from her naps. (And she does like checking out some of my other paintings too!)

Creative Hiatus?

Creative Hiatus?

I've recently lost my oomph for painting. But, I've lost a lot of oomph in general. I'm nearly seven months pregnant, and it sounds cheesy, but I think my creative energy is sapped. My body is focused on baby-making. Which translates to a lot of eating and sleeping in whatever free time I have.

Today I had my first art inspiration in months. I received an email inquiry from a New York gallery, asking if I'd like to be listed on their site, in exchange for a mutual link.

The words "New York gallery" carry a certain weight and excitement with them (although many aruge that's overblown). And to be clear here-- I'm talking about an online link, not an actual presence in the gallery.

But still... I said sure, and spent some time today updating my website, particularly my links page.

In truth, I'm not familiar with Agora Gallery, but their site seems to have some interesting artwork. I'm listed here: http://www.agora-gallery.com/Links/ThemeDetails-Theme-Cubism.aspx.

It wasn't the equivalent of diving back in with my brush and paints, but at least I spent some time thinking about my art and tweaking my website. And it's the first time I've written here in some time-- it's the first miniscule update I've had to share!

The thought of painting and creating has at least crossed my mind a few times in recent weeks. Maybe I'll get enough energy to actually DO something. But, for now, coming close was pretty fun.

In the meantime, here's a view of the current creation underway:

From Puzzled to Inspired

From Puzzled to Inspired

Last Friday, my first solo show opened at ARTshare 25 in San Mateo.





Here I am at the reception, explaining the materials and concepts of my piece, Talked Around.

I am certainly proud and honored to be featured and it's exciting to see a collection of my work up in one place. Several folks came by for the reception, and I have even received some media coverage.

I introduced myself to each guest and made myself available if they had questions. Some fellow artsits also attended and we discussed mine and other artwork as well.

I had reactions that ranged from puzzled to inspired , and frankly, I enjoyed them all.

One young women felt strongly about my piece, September Self Portrait. She was open with her reactions and I was amazed to hear her essentially reciting the emotions I was feeling at the time that I painted the piece. She said the piece looked sad, but not entirely, and that she felt the face staring at her, challenging her to face herself and figure out what she was about.

Another guest, an older European woman, was not as enthusiastic, but she was engaged and curious. She said she owned a lot of traditional art, but was not familiar with abstract art. She asked a lot of questions and said she found the work puzzling. I'm not sure she really enjoyed it or liked it, but we had an interesting conversation about the different pieces. In fact, when we discussed Talked Around, I explained how it was Holocaust-inpired and reflected denial and suppression. She quite quickly understood the piece, and said she had personal experience with it. When she left, she thanked me and said she had learned some things.

When I rejoined some of my artist colleagues, I commented that this guest was a bit puzzled and someone said, "But that's what you're going for, right?"

I was stumped. It may have even been the next day when I thought quite definitively, "No, not really." I just paint what comes to me. My pieces are expressions of my emotions and observations. But I'm not purposely trying to confuse anyone.

It can be challenging for me when people are puzzled by my work. It often seems that they don't particularly care for it, which is fine, but it's naturally harder to take in stride or to figure out how to have a dialogue, than with someone who is enthusiastic and enjoying it.

A couple days later I was listening to the radio program Studio 360, and this theme came up again. In a feature on Andy Warhol, host Kurt Anderson asked, "Many say that Warhol destroyed traditional standards in the art world -- was this good or bad?"

Guest and close associate of Warhol, John Cale of the Velvet Underground said:

It’s essential. If you’re going to be an artist, you’ve got to inspire. I mean not just people around you who understand what you’re doing, but the ones who don’t understand what you are doing. You [might not] know what it’s doing, but it’s very good at what it’s doing. Every once in a while, you get caught by surprise.

I can only hope that my art is that kind of puzzling!