A Conversation with Artist Erik Parra — for Art Slant

In April, I attended a weekend-long Creative Capital workshop with 23 other artists (I was thrilled to be among the group) selected by three San Francisco arts organizations. I attended thanks to Intersection for the Arts, where I’d interned two years prior, and artist Erik Parra repped Southern Exposure; both are Mission District art spaces. I wanted to blog about Erik for GEOslant because he’s been a great part of that support system and art community I’ve been looking for in San Francisco, why I attended the workshop. He’s been a great friend and kept me feeling (if only peripherally) tethered to the arts:



About Place

“It was totally bizarre, in El Paso in the desert, the traditional architecture is flat roofs because the Native Americans who lived in the region lived in mountains and built these settlements out of adobe and mud, and when you’re coming down the mountain, the bricks you build are rectilinear bricks. So there’s no need for a pitched roof, because a pitched roof has a function,” so begins artist Erik Parra in talking about his experience growing up in suburban Texas.

“After the 50s and the suburban model was fully entrenched, then that was what a house looked like. So I think it’s funny that children, even in the Bay Area, draw houses that are a square with a triangle on the top. That is the code for house. You don’t need to have that shape out here, but still in the suburbs, they build that shape. They don’t need it because it doesn’t snow.”

“But a rectangle makes the most sense.” I say, playing devil’s advocate. “You can easily measure it.”

“Well, that’s what it’s all about.” He pauses...

(Continue to ArtSlant)