{"id":1861,"date":"2010-08-26T11:17:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T19:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1861"},"modified":"2012-11-20T14:37:12","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:37:12","slug":"crociani-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/26\/crociani-for-life-1861\/","title":{"rendered":"Crociani for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on August 26, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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"Time Stopper (2012)" (detail), acrylic on canvas (2009)<\/p><\/div>\n

Erin Crociani, aka \u201cPuffy Woodson,\u201d exhibits acrylic and watercolor paintings of voluptuous models from cigarette cards alongside skeletal men and women inspired by D\u00eda de los Muertos. Connecting the two, a skull\u2019s spiraling watch-face eyes witness the passage of time in \u201cTime Stopper (2012).\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The artist herself is unsure of the connection between these cigarette women and Day of the Dead images. She writes in her statement that it is \u201can apocalyptic twist of the future with portraits of Harlots from the past, and how they meet up. I\u2019m not sure, but it just works.\u201d And it does work. These women are in their prime, lovers at the height of their beauty. But in the end \u2014 whether it\u2019s the relentless march of time or the apocalypse (or lung cancer) \u2014 we are all gonna die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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"Lady in Front of Red Wallpaper," acrylic on canvas (2010)<\/p><\/div>\n

She doesn\u2019t know what form an apocalypse would take, but as her friend says to her, \u201cwhen 2012 comes you better take your baby and run \u2026 to the forest.\u201d In \u201cTime Stopper (2012)\u201d she envisions running through a forest of veins. A ghost moth alights on a skull, perhaps representing the last living thing on Earth, or faint hope, the beginning of life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crociani is not afraid of death, but fascinated by it. That and her Hispanic culture inspired the Day of the Dead portraits. Rather than being morbid, she finds it comforting \u201cdealing with death and what happens next.\u201d Her work is not about death, but an affirmation of life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This Oakland-based artist puts her work out there, exhibiting not only in Alameda but Oakland and Berkeley, but she herself lurks in the shadows and avoids the limelight. She\u2019s a shy person who likes not being noticed, and prefers being a fly on the wall at her own receptions, eavesdropping for honest reactions to her work rather than basking in attention.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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From "Family Portraits" (self-portrait), acrylic on wood (2010)<\/p><\/div>\n

Several of the pieces in the show, including the steampunk \u201cAvian\u2019s Key\u201d and one of the three \u201cFamily Portraits,\u201d are actually self-portraits, although not labeled as such. On the other hand, her mixed-media \u201cSelf-portrait in Mexico\u201d features hearts, skulls, crescent moons and bat wings, but without her actual, literal image.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The artist is barely visible on her own website. There\u2019s a rule of thumb that your website is your name, but you won\u2019t find an ErinCrociani.com. Rather, visit PuffyWoodson.com<\/a> for \u201cPaintings by Crociani and Art by Puffy Woodson.\u201d (That\u2019s the name of her first pet + the street she grew up on. You know, her p*rno name.) A very brief bio is hidden under her \u201cTat 2 paintings.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crociani\u2019s work speaks for itself, showing both meticulous attention to detail and willingness to tackle ambitious vistas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her 16-inch-by-20-inch watercolor \u201cDay of the Dead Girl with Butterflies\u201d is framed by nearly forty handmade butterflies composed of scrap pieces of discarded wood, glued together over a three-day period when she was recovering from foot surgery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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"Time Keeper," acrylic on canvas (2009-10)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTime Keeper\u201d is huge, two 72-inch-by-48-inch canvases recreating a vision she had at a rock concert, and it took four years to complete. In it a dragon emerges from a pagoda and vomits koi fish and a medallion bearing the inscription \u201cCROCIANI FOR LIFE\u201d (as well as some donuts and a half-eaten cookie), while that same timepiece dangles from the beak of a two-headed peacock.<\/p>\n

Crociani finds painting to be therapeutic in dealing with stages of life besides death, including getting married and becoming a parent. The purging in this work symbolizes the release of her conceptions of who she thought she was, reinventing herself after becoming a wife and mother. \u201cA new person, but still being me. I will always be Erin Crociani,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crociani\u2019s solo exhibit continues through September 7 at Julie\u2019s Coffee & Tea Garden, 1223 Park Street, Alameda, CA 94501. Their phone number is (510) 865-2385. Hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on August 26, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.\u00a0\u00a0 Erin Crociani, aka \u201cPuffy Woodson,\u201d exhibits acrylic and watercolor paintings of voluptuous models from cigarette cards alongside skeletal men and women inspired by D\u00eda de los Muertos. Connecting the two, a skull\u2019s spiraling watch-face eyes witness the passage of time in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[73,213,212,72],"class_list":["post-1861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-raves","tag-alameda","tag-erin-crociani","tag-julies","tag-the-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-u1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1861"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3885,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions\/3885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}