Studio Tour: José Parlá

José Parlá‘s studio is currently under renovation, so we instead opt to take a walk through Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park, which sits just outside. It’s one of those typically cold New York spring days as we chat about his Cuban parents, childhood growing up in Florida, and his talent and passion for art which took him to SCAD before he even graduated high school.

He shows us his latest book, Broken Language, where the artist, who is more well known for his calligraphy-meets-street-style mural paintings, has a series of photographs in print. Why photography? I ask him. “It’s a memory record. I take the color, the hand, the textures, and I memorize it and I start making paintings from the palettes. You can look at a photo like a poem, that’s why I chose to do the front of the book with photographs so you can see the palate that is going to inform the rest of the work.”

Read more about José's work and see more of our walk through the park here...