Larraine Seiden
Throughout her work Larraine Seiden uses the language of textiles, which has traditionally marked the tension of creating time and space in women’s lives. The processes of collage and assemblage, much like a quilter’s piecing, let her harness the rhythms of interruption and constraint into something whole and sublime.
By reimagining materials through abstraction, she seeks beauty in transforming the overlooked, the forgotten, and the repetition of the everyday. She uses the simplest materials collected domestically and from her community, to ground her work personally while bearing witness to our interconnectedness. She cuts paper ephemera out of its utilitarian origins and devotionally reassembles it through collage or knots, to become her map and meditation.
Seiden grew up in the middle of Pennsylvania during the 1970’s and 80’s where the only art she saw was the fine craft of quilts. At home, the women she knew sewed and knitted, marking time with their stitching. She drew a lot and became a painter, but her eye never strayed far from the intuitive formalism found in the textile arts of Pennsylvania and later, from around the world.
Seiden received her Masters in Art and Design Education from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and a Bachelor’s of Art (Studio) from California State University at Hayward (now East Bay). Her work is in corporate collections including at Cushman/Wakefield in Minneapolis, Sutter Health’s Van Ness Hospital in San Francisco, and North Berkeley Wealth Management. She has been an Artist in Residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA and twice at InCahoots printmaking residency in 2021 and 2023.
The San Francisco based art organization Artspan, has featured her work in city-wide campaigns twice recently. In 2024, her Seamless #14 was selected for their golden 50th Anniversary San Francisco Open Studios. They also selected her work Looking In, Looking Out in their 2019 campaign.
Larraine is in an active volunteer with groups that build community through creativity. Community volunteer highlights include being a founding board member of the Piedmont Makers, where she’s now in her eleventh year. In 2020, she co-founded and co-chaired the Piedmont Art Walk, now a beloved annual fundraising event. After having her first child in 2006, she began a collective called Motherlode for San Francisco-based artists/moms. Eighteen years later, the members are all active and thriving in the Bay Area art scene. She currently lives in the east bay town of Piedmont, CA with her husband and two kids, just down the street from the elementary where she teaches art.
LOCATION: Oakland, CA
