Pauletta Chanco was born in the Manila , Philippines in 1959. She received her B.A. in fine arts at UC Berkeley in 1982, followed by an M.A. in 1987 and her M.F.A. in 1988. During subsequent years, she was a lecturer at UC Berkeley. She has had many solo shows at galleries in San Francisco, Oakland,Tokyo, and Hawaii. She has been included in group shows in San Francisco, Japan, Hawaii, Oakland Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, University of Hawaii, St. Mary’s College at Moraga, and the Sundance Art Center. Her art work has at its basis the Buddhist concept of impermanence and emptiness. She has been impressed by the many different levels of spirituality which she finds is an essential element in her creative process. Ms. Chanco’s work she says reflects “the sacred in the profane.” Her work moves within a liminal space or Bardo which is a Buddhist term meaning a transitional space between two levels of life such as puberty into adulthood or aging into dying. The encaustic works which involves layers of beeswax and pigment on board and the acrylic works utilizing multiple layers of paint on linen are a metaphor for these transitional spaces of life. The round shapes in her paintings act as stepping stones encouraging the viewer to move through her paintings examining the sacred and profane. Ms. Chanco’s works are both spiritual and moving and yet in an artistic sense exciting to the eye.