My most recent exhibition, “All That Remains’ at the Ann Foxworthy Gallery of Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, in collaboration with the art gallery Rubenstein Contemporary, was a showcase of my ash and oil paintings created over the span of the last ten years. Curated primarily from two ongoing series ‘Nostalgie’ and ‘Family Album’ and focusing on the interplay of images of ash clouds, explosions, and family photos, “the paintings are constructed from burned remnants of plants and other materials, suggesting something lost, but also something surviving and persisting.”

Discussing the ash paintings, Elizabeth Russell, co-director of the Foxworthy Gallery, wrote: “Tom Pazderka transforms photographs of family and natural disasters into haunting paintings that explore memory, loss, and the fragile nature of existence. Using ash from burned plants and other remnants mixed with oil and charcoal, images emerge from scorched surfaces in subtle shadows and highlights. Viewed closely, drips run down the wooden panels, seemingly impossible to contain, emphasizing the intimate, physical process of making the work.

The resulting images are familiar – awkward family poses, majestic, yet destructive smoke plumes – and yes, removed from their original context, they appear spectral, as if suspended in transient state. Are the figures present or absent? Is the catastrophe waning or expanding?

The fear of disaster and grief is always present. We calculate risk and investment in our everyday existence, steeling ourselves for the unimaginable while also envisioning a plentiful future. The notion of “remains” is interesting in this context, as it suggests both something perishing and something persisting. Pazderka’s paintings invite us to consider what remains after inevitable degradation and loss.”

The exhibition was on view from August 24th to October 2nd, 2026 and though it is now over, much of the work will be on view in my studio during the fall Ojai Studio Artists studio tour.