tony parillo
AParillo@somers.k12.ny.us
art department
somers high school
somers, ny

Where I've Been   My Life as an Educator   When I'm Not Working   Web Sites I Like

Where I've Been

I was born and raised just outside of Youngstown, Ohio in 1951. I studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in the 1970s and moved to Westchester County here in New York after that. Having majored in painting I was quite unprepared to make a living so I stumbled by accident into the graphic design business. It was never anything I really enjoyed doing. In 1996, after the birth of my first child, Tristan, I quit graphic design on a Friday, took a week off and started teaching on a Monday at a private school in nearby White Plains. I was able to do this since my wife is an art teacher and she simply told me what to do day by day until I could figure it out.

My Life as an Educator

I now have a Masters Degree in Art Ed from The College of New Rochelle and am about to begin my fifth year in the public high school here in Somers, New York, my home. I teach a variety of courses: the Studio Art requirement, Drawing and Painting, Advanced Drawing and Painting, Watercolor and Ceramics. I've also initiated a Computer Animation and Graphic Design class.

I think one of the most gratifying teaching experiences I've ever had was doing an exercise with Drawing and Painting kids that I did myself at an intensive 5-day Experimental Drawing class a couple summers ago in Bennington, Vermont. After laying out every drawing medium and implement I can find (including sticks, feathers, pine cones and Tristan's Hot Wheels cars), I have my students pick a single object and make 30 drawings of it in one 42-minute period. They're usually slow and tentative to start but after about ten minutes you can see them really let go. 

When I'm Not Working...

I spend a lot of my spare time in the basement studio of our home or watching Tristan and his two sisters, Olivia and Juliet, so their mother, Marlen the art teacher, can work in the studio. She is an exceptional ceramic artist who's been showing her work successfully around New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. I've always concentrated on drawing myself but have now switched to ceramics as well since it's so much fun. I like to read about history, primarily medieval and renaissance history, watch movies and play on the computer. And with the kids of course. Once in a while I mow the lawn.

Web Sites I Like

• I like Raphael Fodde Editions at 5 + 5 Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Maybe it's from all those years at the computer terminal, but I really enjoy hand made, limited edition or one-of-a-kind books.
• When I'm feeling really quiet and introspective I visit Miniclip.com.
  
• Reti Medievale is an italian language clearinghouse of sorts for medieval and renaissance studies. I can really understand some of it.
  
• The University of California Press Art Books site has a lot of publications on Bay Area painters from the fifties and sixties, a sorely neglected group of people.
• Finally, where would I be without the Westchester Library System?

 

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