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Paula
Seifred O'Brien - Paintings - Textiles - Colorful Home - Inspiration
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| Welcome to my colorful world! |
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| I have been using the art name Pavelka
since I was 17 but now I am letting go of it and just using my own name. Pavelka is Russian for Paula and sprang from
an early source of inspiration, the Ballets
Russes of the 1920s. Their exotic and provocative dancing, avant-garde
costumes & set design took Europe and the Americas by storm.
Look them up for a visual feast!
Exhibition CV |
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| I
was always a dresser. My parents were both designers
so I got used to having different clothes and finally, tearfully
learnt to sew at about 16 on my Bernina 830 which I still use
today. After Fine Arts at John
Abbott College in home town, Montreal, I traveled to Europe
with my girlfriend Christine for a 4 month tour... but we never
went home. The rest of my life happened instead. After 2 years
as a professional sailor/cook
on a 56 foot French charter sailboat in the Mediterranean and
Caribbean, I met my future husband, Dennis. It was all over
the moment I saw him and he had no chance of escape! |
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| Our first 10 years together were a huge blur
as we experimented with many different businesses on several
different continents, including singing
telegrams in London for a year. In our first 20 years
together, we moved more frequently than every 1.25 years, dragging
art supplies and sewing machine along as we went. |
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In England, I did 2 years of Embroidery/textiles
at Goldsmiths College in London
where textiles are used purely as a fine art medium and not
for commercial or technical uses. For my final show, I created
a wonderful group of dresses with painted backgrounds, full
length "Fortuny"
pleated silk dresses
with fabulous machine embroidered yokes and beaded hems.
I nearly went ahead to produce this sort of thing professionally
but instead a matching set of 2 boys and several transatlantic
moves later, we settled in Gibsons,
a small town of less than 4000 just north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. |
| In 1992, I had a large one-woman
show at our regional Art Center with over 100 pieces
of exotic decorated furniture, eclectic jewelry, ceramics, paintings,
banners, wallhangings and garments. It was a joyous riot of
color and happiness and had many ecstatic viewers. Unfortunately,
someone got too fond, came back after dark, cut through the
alarm system and made off with 5 fabulous
garments! Away went the pleated silk dresses and in a
way, it released me. I turned towards making beautiful clothes
that were really wearable wearable
art as opposed to exotic, expensive, fragile things suitable
for Oscar night. I have created nothing for the (toxic) dry
cleaners since then. |
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When my boys finally got off to school in 1993, I decided
to take my creativity to market. I started to market my interesting
embossed polymer clay jewelry which led into making handmade
buttons. As I tried to sell these "end points",
people kept asking about my own great clothes and I got the
idea of making the "starting point" instead. I took
a couple of months thinking about it then I blasted in on
the quilt pattern business.
In 3 1/2 months, I created my first 9 patterns, all quilts,
and took them to the biggest international trade fair International
Quilt market to see if I had a business. Well, it worked
and off I went! I put my visual arts and painting on the side and
plunged into the quilting industry for the next six years. I wish I had just continued with my painting at this point, but hindsight is so easy isn't it...
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Oh yes, the
pink hair. I always wanted pink hair but it took the
sudden death of my first contemporary to make me take the plunge.
What the heck was I waiting for? It has been pink or violet
on and off since age 40, but I'm letting go of that these days.
Hair is just a toy, as my friend Lou says. It's not a tattoo,
it's only fun. Now I am putting my color into my paintings instead
of my hair but it was fun while it lasted and I still toss turquoise or lilac streaks into my current mix of greys and blonds. it's fun and even my neighbors comment that they miss the fun color! Too funny! |
In 1998, my family set off on a BIG
FAMILY ADVENTURE. We sailed our 42" sailboat Sandingo from Vancouver,
Canada down to Mexico and spent 2 long winters exploring small Mexican villages
and meandering along the coastline. Our two boys home-schooled
winters of grades 6-9 while we were afloat. I had
to ditch the pink hair as it was just too much upkeep,
especially when water was at a premium on the boat.
Read more about sailing in Mexican sailing trip. |
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After our 2 winters in Mexico, 9 months in
total, we returned to Gibsons in 2000 and plunged into a whole
new business. We create those fun and informative colorful
kids placemats and activity
books you might find in restaurants or in schools.
KidzSmart
was brainstormed because we had kids and took them to restaurants.
We thought the things given to kids to play with could be
done much better. Two months after our return from Mexico,
we launched this business at Chicago's National
Restaurant Show, the biggest of its kind in the world,
and it's been hair straight back since then! We now have about 30
employees and a branch in England. |
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And now in 2010...
After being released from fulltime work at Kidzsmart since 2007 and with my kids grown now,
I am back in the studio when I'm not spearheading Kidzsmart's social media campaign. I still create wonderful wearables but only
for myself these days. After years of fitting my artwork into the cracks of my busy life I am thirsty for the big consecutive blocks of studio time that I am enjoying now.
My current work is figurative painting in acrylics and oils. I am especially drawn to theatrical and dramatic subjects full of personal style and flair. I used to paint only from my imagination and didn't have any interest in working from real life but now that is completely reversed and I only want to work from real life. Too funny! This was a major epiphany for me in September 2007 when I started to do weekly life drawing in Sechelt.
My latest work of art though is the Figurative Artist network site and the figurative artist slide show #1. Enjoy!
Bringing more color & laughter
into the world is my mission.
Enjoy, experience & love as much as you can while you're
still breathing! It beats the alternative.
Enjoy!
Paula |
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