A Note From the Studio
Before I Know
Some of the most meaningful moments in my studio are the ones I could not have planned. I begin with written words, often using my non-dominant hand, then make a mark and respond. I build, cover, sand, scrape, and uncover. Slowly, the painting reveals what it needs.
I live with a work for a while, walking past it and catching it from the corner of my eye. If it still surprises me and I feel no need to add another mark, it is finished.
Working in series allows one discovery to continue into the next. Marks, colors, words, and gestures gather into a record of memory, intuition, attention, and trust. In recent years, pinks, magentas, and oranges have arrived with new confidence. Color has become the protagonist.
I believe every painting has a life before it is made and another after it leaves the studio. Once it is lived with, the viewer's own memories and experiences become part of its story. The work knows before I do. My job is to listen.
About Paula Edwards Borsetti
Paula Edwards Borsetti is a New England painter and installation artist whose layered abstract work explores memory, lived experience, and the shifting landscapes of Massachusetts and Maine. Working primarily in acrylic, she builds, obscures, sands, scrapes, and redraws until color, pattern, and fragments of place begin to reveal themselves. Color is the protagonist, carrying the work through grief, love, change, and joy.
After nearly three decades as an art educator, Borsetti shifted to a full-time studio practice in 2020. She holds an M.E. in Arts and Learning from Endicott College, a BFA from Montserrat College of Art, and a Certificate of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Boston. Her work has been widely exhibited, published, and collected in the United States and abroad.
She is represented by Galaray House Gallery in SoWa, Boston, 3 Walker Contemporary in Kittery, Maine, and The Salted Cod Arthouse in Gloucester, Massachusetts.