Phillip Parotti (PEP)

Phillip (PEP) Parotti was born and raised in Silver City, New Mexico.  Following graduation from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1963 and four years at sea aboard destroyers, he transferred his commission to the Naval Reserve and entered graduate school at The University of New Mexico for the purpose of taking advanced degrees in English Literature.  Following the completion of his studies in 1972, he joined the faculty at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas and retired from the institution with the rank of Professor Emeritus in 2004.  In addition to publishing professional articles, poems, essays, and short stories, Parotti is also the author of three novels about the Trojan War: The Greek Generals Talk (University of Illinois Press, 1986), The Trojan Generals Talk (University of Illinois Press, 1988), and Fires in the Sky (Ticknor & Fields, 1990).  And in retirement, he continues to write and publish fiction.

Pep Parotti’s interest in making woodcuts began, almost by chance, while he was still in the Navy.  On a slack weekend in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, while working in the ship’s office, he happened across a ship’s kit for taking F.B. I fingerprints.  A quick trip to the carpenter’s shop then turned up a small piece of pine, and by means of a pocket knife, he then produced and printed his first woodcut.  Thereafter, the Parottis adopted the woodcut as the means for making and sending annual Christmas cards.  But it was not until 1992, when he began to spend long vacations in Silver City, that Parotti attempted to take his woodcuts seriously.  Returning home in 1992, Parotti discovered that Silver City had suddenly blossomed into an art center.  Encouraged by a local art dealer to try something more ambitious, Parotti turned out a series of larger prints, placed them with  the dealer, made his first sale, and became hooked on cutting woodcuts and linocuts.  For more than a decade now, Parotti has been showing his prints with Leyba and Ingalls Arts Gallery in Silver City.  He also shows his prints with Jane Hamilton Fine Arts in Tucson, Studio W in Ruidoso, and  R. L. Riddell Rare Maps and Prints in Dallas.

“My preferred medium is Bass wood,” Parotti says, “because the grain is very straight, but the wood is difficult to obtain in large pieces, so I most often use Ponderosa Pine.  Indiana Poplar is also very good wood for making woodcuts in this high, dry New Mexico air; when I first tried to use the wood while living in Texas, I found that the humidity caused the fibers to drag under even the sharpest of my blades, but here in the high country, when I can get it, the Poplar works wonderfully.  The majority of my prints are in black and white, but as time goes by, I find that I am trying to learn to make color prints that will hold the viewer’s eye, so working with color has opened up a whole new dimension to my printmaking.  My chief subject is the Southwest,” Parotti continues, “ the landscape and the culture here have never ceased to hold my interest.”