Artospective: Mixed Media Art by Claudio Parentela from Italy.

An Interview with Claudio Parentela.

Who and where are you from?

My name is Claudio Parentela ….I’m 55 years old….I’m an Italian visual artist and a journalist free lance…I live in South Italy in the ancient Magna Graecia….in a small and beautiful city called Catanzaro…

What brought you to Art?

I paint, I draw, I make collages, I write, I draw and I read tarots .... I draw weird comics .... since so many years ... since the far 1999 .... I chose to do this beautiful '' work '' because it makes me feel free .... it makes me feel well. ... it makes me aware of my limitations, it opens new worlds new doors, inside and outside of me. I feel like a great mixer, full of sounds, colors, voices, laughter’s, people, gestures .... I have drawn only in white and black for 15 years ..... then the color called me .... I started using 10,1000 different colors and to create with everything that I had under hand .... I love the strong contrasts, full of delicate and extreme emotions .... I love the absolute contrast between white and black …and the 1000 shades that divide and unite the black and white .... I do a lot of photographs .... I love to photograph everything I like and that attracts my attention .... I like to dirty my photographs, to color them, to scratch them, to mix them with my drawings, with my ideas, with my heart.

What is your driving force?

So difficult and easy at the same time to answer…..many many things….different ,similar things inspire me continually every day to create….music….absolutely… first I need of good music ….my cigarettes….and if it’s possible a good beer….My muses/ my inspirations vary every day…..Ghedalia Tazartes, Diamanda Galas, Shirley Horn, Patty Waters, Ornette Colemann, Sun Ra,Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Moschino, The Incapacitans, Alan Vega&Suicide, Hercules and Love Affair, Can, The Irrepressible ……much much fashion….underground comics…..my books…… Aurobindo and the Mother, Sai Baba, Tarots, Kundalini Yoga, Carolyne Miss, Alesteir Crowley…….my friends….their laughter’s….my garden with my cats and my beloved flowers….my wife….and our love!

What kind of work you do and why?

This is my wonderful ,fantastic work…. I could not do another work ... it makes me feel alive, real, myself, free .... the freedom is the only way for me to be in this wonderful world…. Art is the only way for me to be in this world, to feel free

Tell us more about your thought process.

I have new ideas in the morning ... in the afternoon ... in the evening ... at night ... always ... all the time ... I need only of good music, of my cigarettes, of a good glass of wine red .... and the magic happens every day ....surely because I love my work, because I created it and I create it continuously with joy and patience... I always create my freedom, this is the magic. It is a wonderful adventure, difficult, hard, full of surprises, full of splendid gifts ... every day. I find and create my style every day, I change my colors, my brushes, my pens, my papers every day. I reinvent myself every day. I like to experiment continuously .... I love experimenting. I love fashion .. .underground comics, my books, my cats.I draw and I paint continuously, every day. Continuously .... I read everything, I love to read ... I listen to everything.

Please share with us the one modern artist whose work you find Interesting and why?

I love Joel Peter Witkin ... his works / photos are pure light ... light in the flesh, perfection in the compositions, order in the horrendous chaos, beauty in the dark unconscious, precise idea in the turbulent emotions