Currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Paula Di Marco is a visual artist who explores figurative subjects using watercolor as her main medium. Paula was born in California and raised in Argentina where she first developed her love for art, which she inherited from her mother who was an artist in her early years. Paula taught herself how to draw during her teenage years by creating portraits of her childhood crush. However, she ended up leading an academic and subsequently a corporate life that kept her away from art. The next step in that life was moving to Vancouver to pursue a Master in Business Administration from the University of British Columbia. The beauty of the city inspired her to pick up her instruments again and rekindle that old flame in her heart.
Between 2015 and 2019, Paula created her own version of art school, exploring different types of media and subjects and participating in a variety of local art shows. Towards the end of this period she finally found in watercolor the medium she was missing to express all her ideas with complete freedom.
In 2020, Paula decided to go back to portrait drawing but this time using watercolor as the main medium to execute faces loaded with emotions in a surrealist style. Paula cites as some of her biggest influences contemporary watercolor artists such as Agnes Cecile, Ali Cavanaugh, Ana Santos, and Kelogsloop.
Today Paula works full time as a business analyst for the government; however, she spends evenings and weekends exploring her creative ideas, drawing, painting, and learning new techniques as well as developing new artistic skills such as Photoshop and web design.
“I create in the margins of life, outside my 9-5. Although my time is limited and I don’t get to create as much as I would like to, everything I bring into this world, from painting to writing, is very intentional. Creating is what allows me to keep the connection to myself alive no matter life circumstances, and it fuels my courage to show up in a world that can feel cruel and nonsensical at times. I create in a space that allows and invites mysticism, blurring the line between illusion and reality. In this space, there are no rules and no restrictions, and beauty and pain complement one another. In this untainted space, the outside world doesn’t matter anymore. This is the space where I can breathe and let go.”
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GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Introspections + Expressions, Kay Meek Arts Centre, Vancouver, Canada
2022 The Pancakes and Booze Art Show, Vancouver, Canada
2022 "Summer 555", Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery, Santa Fe, USA
2022 "ArtBase Virtual Exhibition", The Holy Art, London UK
2022 "Contemporary", Boomer Gallery, London, UK
2019 Too Many Dinner Parties II, Vancouver, Canada
2019 Love in Motion, Vancouver, Canada
2019 Too Many Dinner Parties I, Vancouver, Canada
2018 Eastside Culture Crawl, Vancouver, Canada
2018 “Works on Paper Exhibition”, Federation of Canadian Artists, Vancouver, Canada
2017 “Mail-In Exhibition”, Federation of Canadian Artists, Vancouver, Canada
2017 “Vancouver Arts Meet-Up Group Art Show and Celebration”, The Beaumont Studios, Vancouver, Canada
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AWARDS & COLLABORATIONS
2022 Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Issue 28
2022 Bronze Award, “Faces 2022 International Juried Painting Competition”, Camelback Gallery, Scottsdale, USA
2020 “The Time of Covid”, Creative community project to raise funds for DTES Women’s Center, Vancouver, Canada
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Wicked Café, Vancouver, Canada
2017 The Drive Coffee Bar, Vancouver, Canada