Patricia LaVette

Designer whose full name was Patricia Anne LaVette Szeliga.

Patricia LaVette passed away in August of 2022 from an unintentional fentanyl overdose.

HER APPROVED STORY

From an early age Patricia set out to make her world beautiful, and so she did.

She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pepperdine University majoring in Fine Art History and Painting. After her studies at Pepperdine she moved to Tokyo to model, and became intrigued with the ceramic designs coming out of the East. Her father had a large collection of Chinoiserie that she was enamored with, and thus her quest began.

She became enraptured with oriental porcelain in Kyoto and Kamakura the home of traditional Japanese ceramic glazed pottery, earthenware, and ancient porcelain techniques, such as Raku and Arita. While in Tokyo, she traveled to Hong Kong and frequented many shops with hand-painted Chinoiserie, it was an Art Form she wanted to know more about.

Also during that time, Ms. LaVette was working as the lead fashion shoot stylist at the trendsetting international multi-media design studio “Sant‘Andrea Japan, Inc.” located in the Minato-ku district, the “Madison Avenue” of the Japanese advertising world.

She continued her studies at UCLA and later was hired as a Graphic Designer, Illustrator, and Textile Designer, eventually becoming Head Designer at Frances Lux Design in Los Angeles, designing a myriad of wallpapers, fabrics and bedding. Patricia then decided to study abroad in Europe, and traveled through Spain, France, and Italy where she was inspired by the ancient architecture and art work. She remained in Italy concentrating her studies in Italian language and art, living for months at a time in Florence and designing hand painted Textile Designs for American Companies for several years.

After returning stateside she decided to introduce, create, and manufacture her own line of hand-painted ceramic earthenware designs as Tricia Ceramic. She sold her designs, initially across the United States, to luxury high-end stores, such as Gump’s, Geary’s, Tesoro, Table Manners, and dozens of others. Her unique creativity was then discovered by the famed Maiolica factory, Grazia Deruta, in Umbria, and she was invited to design exclusively for them.

Grazia Deruta was one of the first founding factories in Italy, having been created in the 15th century, due to the trade routes from East to West, including the infamous Silk Route then into Spain then to Italy. Initially discovered by Marco Polo, it became the most culturally relevant and commercially important road to travel, converging East and West. At that time Italy recaptured the white porcelain from the East, thus developing Maiolica and establishing itself as the ceramic art center of Kings! They used their natural red clay from the lush Umbrian ground and developed a white “tin” glaze that would serve as the perfect canvas for hand-painted ceramic objects; not white porcelain clay, but deep red Umbrian earthen clay that could be dipped into a highly sophisticated white glaze – a superior marriage to illustrate the beautiful, earthy romantic Renaissance designs of that time.

As Patricia’s beautiful journey unfolded she worked alongside established Artists and Ceramists learning techniques that were handed down from centuries ago. Maiolica was her ultimate Ceramic experience. The Maiolica was like painting on a lime fresco, as the deep earthen pigments saturated the Maiolica tin glaze and Patricia found that she was unable to paint on anything else after discovering Maiolica. Grazia Deruta sold many of Ms. LaVette’s designs to exclusive stores, such as Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel and many other stores in Europe, as well as to private collectors throughout the world, including Amsterdam, Japan, and France.

Patricia then got married, had two beautiful children and stayed close to home in Los Angeles as she designed in her own studio “Tricia Ceramic” in the Santa Monica Mountains. She developed her own version of Maiolica Glaze, which took two arduous years for her to formulate and perfect. Tricia” studio in Topanga Canyon manufactured Maiolica Earthenware to satisfy thousands of customers worldwide.

Patricia continued to create a multitude of designs in many different media as she raised her family, and although she enriched her artistry with multiple endeavors, she found that she loved painting on the three-dimensional surface of Maiolica best and is now creating her newest creation of Maiolica, returning to Italy to produce her creations. Her designs are timely and will set the precedent of what others will copy, as Ms. LaVette has an uncanny inner library of worlds unseen in the marketplace.

Many will emulate, but never capture the magic vision, of Patricia LaVette’s designs.