(Self Portrait Texas Roots, Injured? 2010)

 

Paula Lalala was taught to believe that anything referred to as art is art;  but she still ponders questions like “what is art” and “how is this art”. She grew up in a religion that was against art*, and in a community that primarily considered art as decoration for walls. This community, located in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, for the most part, was shocked, offended, and confused by a great deal of art displayed in museums, and / or by stories about art in the media.

Personal trauma led Paula to explore and discover art.

Motherhood led Paula to explore and discover ideas about education and the power struggles behind institutional dissemination of knowledge. This knowledge in turn feeds her continued production of works which struggle with, and comment on the role of art in contemporary society.

Paula Lalala is truly a child of America, and her family embodies a typical American story.  Her mother’s family fled Missouri during reconstruction and moved to Texas, and her father’s father was an immigrant who barely spoke English.  Individuality, rebellion, and self-reliance were attributes prized to some degree in Texas in the 1960’s, ’70’s, and ”80s; these traits flourished in Paula and continue to inform her work to this day.

Aside from a few childhood drawings of trees, horses, and bibles, Paula Lalala began making art in 1983 and has been working passionately ever since. Her work has been exhibited at numerous venues, and is in private, public, and corporate collections around the world. Her only child, a son, is now grown. She and her partner, Jack, an author and musician, live in Brooklyn, New York.

*Church of Christ: doctrine of no art in church because of their interpretation of the biblical commandment not to make “any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above” is “and bow down and worship it”.

From the Domain of Paula

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