An MFA graduate in painting from the University of Washington, Virginia Paquette has worked and exhibited internationally. Her art responds to motion and memory, and is inspired by natural forms and phenomena. Winner of numerous public art commissions, Paquette has collaborated with her husband, Bill Smith, on site performance installations around the world, including “Deluge,” created for Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston, Australia, “Saffeides” at Teatro Greco in Rome, and with ARTKOAMIA performance consortium.
TERREMOTO: Following a startling earthquake in an Etruscan cave in Italy several years ago, Paquette and Smith created a performance/installation inspired by the event and each others’ responses.
Bologna Blues Series: For a residency at the Conservatorio di Musica in Bologna this year, Virginia painted these mixed-media works as part of another collaboration with Bill Smith. They are her visual responses to his works of music, influenced by their years together in Italy. Paquette responds to Smith’s music with color, line, rhythm, gesture, and collage of found images, salvaged from the streets of Italy.
