Paula Gustafson

Paula Gustafson (February 25, 1941 – July 11, 2006) was a Canadian artist, author, editor and advocate for craft and art in Canada.

Biography Gustafson was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia. She started as a potter in the 1960s with a successful pottery studio in Nassau, Bahamas. In the 1970s, she returned to Canada and opened a second pottery studio in Yarrow, British Columbia. During this time Gustafson also began exploring the world of textiles, making her own natural dyes for the hand-spun wool she made into woven tapestries and knitted garments. During the 1980s, she began watercolour painting and botanical drawing. Gustafson also explored bronze casting, glassblowing, crafting jewellery and handmade paper. She spent several summers taking part in courses at Series at Red Deer College.

Gusafson was President of the Alberta Crafts Council from 1983 to 1985. In 1985, she became Executive Assistant to the President and Board of Governors at the Alberta College of Art. In the 1990s, she served as Director of the Visual Arts Board for the City of Calgary. She continued working until just a week before her death from cancer in 2006. Artichoke Magazine: Writings about the Visual Arts was founded in the 1989 by Gustafson with Mary-Beth Laviolette and David Garneau. It was published quarterly until 2005.

From 1990–1992, Gustafson was a writer / contributing editor to a various publications, including Artichoke, Western Living, Visual Arts Newsletter, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, Canada Crafts, Ontario Craft, Ceramics Monthly, Craft International, Borealis, American Indian Art, Textile: Fibre Forum, Ceramics Art and Perception, The Vancouver Sun, Ceramic Review, The Craft Factor, Blackflash, Above and Beyond, BC Woman, Vancouver Step, Monday Magazine, ArtFocus, Notations and the Glass Gazette.