Paula Grcevic

I was born deaf in Youngstown, Ohio, and was mainstreamed in schools without any other deaf classmates. During my childhood, we moved to Lake Como, Italy. This time spent in Europe had an impact on my artistic background.

I was educated at the International School of Milan in Italy where classes consisted of hearing foreign students who may or may not have an understanding of the English language. It was in this world of different cultures that I felt I belonged. I studied art in school and was exposed to the European arts. After six years of living in Italy, my family moved back to America to live in Connecticut.

I attended public high school and I took private art classes outside of school since art classes were not offered due to budget cuts. I received a BFA in Communication Arts (illustration / graphic design) and an MFA in Printmaking / Stained Glass from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. During college, I worked professionally in the Chelsea district of Manhattan designing and airbrushing patterns on fabrics. I taught for 41 years at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in the Department of Visual Communication Studies in Rochester, New York as a Full Professor. I have also worked as a stage designer for Rochester's Women's Community Project Theatre and have exhibited artwork nationally. Currently, my sketchbooks are in The Sketchbook Project at Brooklyn Art Library.

[Source: artist supplied statement]