Ms. Cover was born in NYC, now lives
in Vancouver WA and sometimes Santa Cruz CA. She has been to places far and wide.
Bio - Mizzpaw@gmail.com
Parmalee Paula Cover is an Interdisciplinary artist. Her works are experimental, emerging between genres rather than combining them . At the age of eighty six Parmalee is a published author, poet, teacher and technician. She is recognized for her Indy video productions and involvement in poetry performance.
At five, Parmalee had her first art show – all over the walls, B29s dropping explosives in crayola to stop WW2. After that, Parmalee majored in illustration at Syracuse University School of Fine Arts, then transferred to San Francisco Art Institute where she became deeply involved in the Bay Area neo-figurative movement and later with Indy film making and art photography.
While employed as writer/director for Corporation for Public Broadcast she collaborated after hours on the technical aspects of independent video production for conceptual artists.
Her art since turning 80 is outspoken, aptly called inventions - large format allegorical collage, Tradigital* paintings and her own iPhone photo genre- DriveByShots - taken while driving a moving vehicle - which informs her other works with movement and danger.
* Tradigital: art on the instercesse between traditional, marks on surface art and digital image captures.
Artist Statement
"There is a difference between a
painting of a beautiful thing and a beautiful
painting." - Ferdinand Leger
I am not an artist. I am a driver on a journey to map the "what ifs" into art. I'm thriving and buoyant in the travel as it propels me to make what-if’s’’ real.
My art drives the path of what-Ifs, whys and what fors of humankind’s progeny, My art runs on “Wild and crazy guy” metaphorical wars, failure, surprise, beauty in all faces, the structure of things, god scapes and even those scapes yenning for Plein-air artists who ain't never me. I illuminate the unexpected reveal. This requires relentless research to find the heart of each life and the history of lives. I precisely document both the journey and the findings. Intense examination of details makes the whole. Close up to wide angle.
Art directs me to a place of power and wonder. Each piece embodies universal narratives. I arrive through the Leonardo tools of my gratitude. The destination speaks for itself
‘’ ..... what the viewer sees and feels is important, not what the viewer thinks I am saying.’’
- Gladys Barker Grauer
Art and Photography Exhibits
- ART at the CAVE GALLERY Vancouver WA group exhibits include “Politiks” “Art of Covid” “Hands” “Ancestors” “Pet Project” “Love in the Time of Covid”
- FUTURE West Coast Womans Caucus for Art juried show Livermore
- LOVE exhibit, Highland Park Art Museum, Highland Park IL
- GROUND ON WHICH WE STAND exhibit, Claghorn Gallery, Albany CA
-ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL juried exhibit Woman Made Gallery Chicago
-OPEN SHOW Santa Cruz Presenter DRIVEbyShots
DNA (Riverview)Theater April 24, 2019
OPEN STUDIOS 2019 Portland OR
-STILL LIFE/Our Women Before Us, The Theater at Gibney, NYC
-Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland CA “Something Blue" curated show Oakland, CA
-Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, “Feminism Revisited juried show.
Recent
-Vancouver School of Art Guest Artists Show, Politics), Vancouver, WA
-Cave Gallery “Politiks" Juried Show Vancouver, WA
-Finalist Fourth Annual Faces and Figures Photography Awards
Past
-Focus Gallery ("Alienation" Solo Show), San Francisco
-Hofstra College (group show), Hempstead, NY
-Syracuse Museum of Art (group traveling show) N.Y
-Stemphli (Duo show with Joan Brown), New York City
-San Francisco Art Institute group drawing show with Joan Brown, Manuel Neri, Jay deFeyo.
-East West Gallery (Solo Show) San Francisco
-6 Gallery (Funk Art group show with Wally Hedricks, Roy deForest, William Brown, Joan Brown etc. ) San Francisco
-Delexi Gallery (Dada Show with Jose Ramon Lerma and Wally Hedricks), San Francisco
-Stanford University Alumni Center Gallery (Art
Video and Film Productions (highlights):
-FRONTLINE- "Here but for Fortune/Joan Baez, South American Tour" produced for Corporation for Public Broadcasting, production assist
-"Born Never Asked" short three screen video piece for Laurie Anderson Tour, Warner Special Products
-"Born Never Asked," art film broadcast Indy Film Series WTTW Chicago
-The Who ‘’Farewell’’ World Tour Video, Pacific Bell Productions, San Francisco
-Black History in America, Pacific Bell, Productions, San Francisco, Screen writer, publicity
-Freman Dyson "Colonies in Space" interview for Canadian Public Broadcast, Audio
-El Teatro Theater Interview for PBS, Audio
-Bay Area Young Filmmakers Festivals, Writer, Director, Interviewer, camera, KTEH, PBS Writer, Director, Technician 1980 - 1985
-Lorne Greene PSA for Canadian Public Broadcast, Audio, Still photography
-Home Box Office Production Service, Los Angeles, The Hitchhiker TV Series, Post production continuity
-Charles Chess Film Productions, San Jose CA, Assistant Director, Continuity
-Yuma Desert, Pacific Film Works, Camera operator Arriflex 35mm film
-PhotoTech Labs Los Angeles, film editor, quality control
-Turtle Geometry an Athena Language Project documentary, Consultant and actor, Palo Alto CA
Photography illustration Graphic Arts
-MATH LION, illustrations for 4th grade textbook produced and published by Wiley and Sons, New York 1967
-Stanford Research Institute documentation of nuclear shelter project;
-Performance posters for various poets who performed at Ms Cover's poetry performance venues.
-Xerox Corporation art menu, photographic documentation, Research Department, Palo Palo Alto, CA
Education
-BS and MA, Interdisciplinary Arts, San Francisco State University, Film/Script Writing/Broadcast Art
-PhD Curriculum Design and Instruction, North Central University, uncompleted
-Syracuse University School of Fine Arts, Illustration Major
-San Francisco Art Institute, Painting major, Independent Film
-University of CA, Berkekey extension credits: Ecological Structures, College Algebra
-Iowa Writers Workshop, three sessions University of Iowa
-Autism Spectrum Workshop credits for teachers Santa Cruz County Department of Education
Certificates
CMX Corp, on-line broadcast editing for Edge
FCC Radio Operators License 3rd Class
Awards
-Harriet Levenworth Painting Award, Syracuse University School of Fine Arts
-First Prize Art Award National Organization for Women Against Domestic Violence
Published Work
-VERSA Literary Magazine, Amsterdam, "Vilho and the Birth of Pale Orchids" intro Book One., SEVENTEEN/Child of War, University Press NY, 2015
-PLAZM ARCHIVES ANTHOLOGY published MOMA, New York City
-Seattle Poetry Fest Anthology BUMPERSHOOT
-Featured Writer The Bacon Review, Interview, -PLAZM Magazine writer. several pieces
-ANAGOGIE SCAMS LA, novel optioned Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1998
-BLUESTOCKING Magazine interview of author and short pieces.
-VILHO and the BIRTH of PALE ORCHIDS - book one of two pub University Press, 2015
-S E V E N T E E N/ Child of War, book two of two, pending University Press, NY
Interviewer
-Freman Dyson Canadian Public Broadcast
-Lynn Hershman-Leeson
-Workers interview series www.LetUsPraiseWorkers.com
-Bay Area Young Filmmakers winners, PBS
-Real Lives of Real Kids,/Young artists speak traveling exhibit
-Marc Smith, Bluestocking Magazine
Poetry Performance (highlights)
-Headliner with Exene Cervenka and others,Seattle Bumpershoot Poetry Fest
-Venue Director Performance Poetry, Santa Cruz, Salinas
-Slam Poetry International Championships, team leader and performer, Middletown Ct, Chicago, Austin TX, Dallas
-Featured guest performer at numerousPoetry venues including: Cass King, Vancouver BC; Marc Smith, Green Mill, Chicago; Vadim Litvik, San Jose CA; Clebo Rainey, Dallas, TX; Crystal Ballroom, Portland OR
Memberships and Affiliations
Current:
-Women’s Caucus for Art, Oregon and North Coast California
-Women in the Arts
Inactive::
-National Collage Board
-Writer Guild of America West
-National Writers Union
-National Geological Society
-San Francisco Video Coalition
Internet Sites
-www.mizzpaw.com Devoted to Parmalee's recent art and photography includes her blog with a link to YourLyin'Art intermittent blog postings on art and politics.
www.Mizzpaw.net WRITERS NOTES topics, selections from publications
-www.LetUsPraiseWorkers.com Photos and Words by Taxi Drivers, Servers and other people who work hard every day but don't get paid all that much.
-www.EtherCafe.com featuring “Slam Granny Goin' Places She Don't Belong" web site postings of her Slam Poetry writing, photographs and drawings. No longer up.
Parmalee codes her own websites.
Teaching (highlights)
- Curriculum Writer/designer, Writing, Science, Test prep instructor for numerous public and private schools. www.CollegeBound.com (discontinued)
-Lecturer Basic Art Notre Dame University de Nameur, Belmont CA
--Assistant Lecturer Art Practice Introduction, Stanford University, Stanford CA
- Painting teacher for gifted children, mostly undocumented. Los Angeles School of Music and Art
- Arts and media teacher, Peninsula School, Menlo Park CA