Parting Shot

by Peter M. Laffin and illustrations by Christina Mazzalupo, January 26, 2007

Rather than letting the passing clouds of time and space soak up ordinary moments, Brooklyn-based artist Christina Mazzalupo clings to banal daily experiences and engages them, producing a creation on their behalf before letting go.

“There is importance to every moment in every day,” says Mazzalupo. “I try to make sense of the tiny moments before they get lost.”

Often, these fleeting periods, like getting a coffee at Starbucks or compulsively checking her e-mail, materialize as images in her mind as she tries to sleep or during her dreams. Sometimes they pummel her, and at other times they come in bits.

“I lose a lot of them,” she says. “I bring the ones I can onto paper.”

Mazzalupo works in collage, paint, and pencil and ink. This piece is part of “Hey Get Mental,” a series that explores the collision between her waking and dreaming lives. Whether the motivation to create these images is an inescapable part of her life or if she creates because she knows the comfort the process will bring, the personal reward is always the same.

“When I’m in the process, I am my truest self,” she says.

Christina Mazzalupo’s work is on view at the Main Street Bistro in New Paltz through February 4.
(845) 255-7766; www.mainstreetbistro.com.