Painter Teresa Parod has created over 70 works of public art, mostly in the Chicago area but also extending to Milwaukee, St. Louis, New Orleans, Havana Cuba, and Istanbul Turkey. These as well as her oil-on-canvas paintings can be seen at teresaparod.com.
Teresa and her husband, composer and software developer Bill Parod have also been working together on multi-media art. Teresa Parod Murals is one example combining mural paintings with situated spatial music and sound art through Augmented Reality development.
Homage To Sondra by Teresa Parod is about historic cottages on the street where I live. I use the term historic loosely as it seems all the neighbors have a different idea of their history but no one knows exactly what that history is. We all agree that they are charming and unique. Sondra was a long time resident of one of the cottages and a true eccentric character. When she began talking, it was impossible to leave as she never stopped. Her words were at times brilliant, funny, petty, inspiring, mean, fun, thoughtful, dramatic, loving, ridiculous, sad, epic, joyous but always interesting and definitely non stop. She told me she had lunch with Picasso, inspiring him when she held up the skeleton of a fish she had just eaten. She ate lobster in the White House and gave the president’s advisors advice, She hugged John Travolta in our alley, which was very embarrassing to her because she wasn’t wearing a bra. I always considered her a genius of some kind,
She was beautiful, though she told me she hadn’t taken a bath in 12 years, wore the same torn black dress with falling apart shoes everyday, and probably hadn’t combed her hair since the Carter administration. Sondra passed several years ago and I often miss the old girl. What I would give to hear one of her extended conversations. I picture her biking in heaven, because she told me often she wished she could still ride a bike.
The mural is at the rear of Endoscopy Center of the North Shore, 1732 Central Street, Evanston, IL. Or on teresaparod.com.