When Dani Paivarinta starts her first year of high school next week, she already knows what her favourite class is going to be. She can't wait for Art at PGSS.
It's a pursuit that has already made her into a professional. This past summer Paivarinta was the star of her own exhibition at Cafe Voltaire, sold a number of works right off the downtown coffeeshop gallery's walls, got interviewed by CFIS Radio, and sparked new possibilities for herself heading into Grade 8.
"We were looking at the art on the walls in there one day, and my mom knew the artists, so we started thinking about my art, and just asking about how to be on the walls there," said the young artist who graduated this summer from Polaris Montessori Elementary School. Teacher Jody Hoffman was a big influence on her art and artistic ambition, she said, as was noted local painter Maureen Faulkner from whom she takes additional art classes at the Two Rivers Gallery.
One of the works of art featured at the show was done with Faulkner, another was left over from elementary school, and the rest were original creations specifically for the show.
"I like acrylics most of all, because you can cover things up," said Paivarinta, indicating the thick smearing and fast drying that acrylics are capable of. "Also I like watercolours because you can blend the colours. When I'm bored I'll just sit down and sketch away at things. Sometimes it's just doodling with a sharpie, not even real drawings."
The exhibition was real drawings. Her skills still retain a childlike quality to them, but the advanced nature of the work is what spurred buyers to make purchases. Her sisters Maija and Emmi were also afforded a home life that encouraged art (both their mother Jaylene Pfeifer and father Markku Paivarinta have deep artistic pursuits in different creative genres), but it was Dani who most formalized the artistic spirit.
She also understands that good art can also involve symbolic representation, and layers of meaning beyond the initial image. Her personal favourite work of art is entitled World One which depicts a map of the globe made with bits of water bottles, plastic bags and other shards of poly that distort the bodies of land and water beneath.
"I wanted to do one that talked about plastic in the ocean," Paivarinta said, inspired by some reading she'd been doing about the oceanic watchdog group Mission Blue. She raided the household recycling bin and got cutting and colouring. "I covered the whole world in plastic."
Now she is looking towards another material with close connections to mother earth.
"I really want to do something with wood," she said. "I want to use it to paint on, use chunks of it all put together. I like trees and I like wood as well."
She and her sisters are involved in a number of creative disciplines - Highland dancing, sewing, sports - and getting a taste of art's professional side has put a frame around Dani Paivarinta's high school entry summer.
