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Artist Polina Perl was born in Riga, Latvia. As a young girl living under the domination of the Soviet government, Perl dared to pursue artistic expression in a society that tried to control expression. Upon her graduation from high school in Riga, Perl was chosen as the youngest member to work in a small, private, studio under the tutelage of Russian drawing professor, Vitaly Borisovich Kortunov.

Kortunov was a taskmaster who demanded much of the young artist, yet Polina Perl thrived and felt emboldened, gaining confidence by her classical art studies. It was a confidence she would need as the outside world pushed it a way into her life and her family left Latvia for the United States. It was only after arriving in the United States that Perl was finally exposed to the forbidden works of artists like Wasily Kandinski, who became an important influence on the young artist.

In 1978, determined to have a successful life in her new country, Perl began studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She graduated in 1980. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Perl settled into life as a successful fashion designer, working in prestigious west coast firms for over eighteen years.

Several years ago, however, Perl felt a desire to return to an old love, ceramics and so she attended a ceramic class at Santa Monica City College. There she reawakened her lifelong passion for art and became a teaching assistant for several terms as she re-immersed herself in individual expression. Today, that passion takes up every spare moment as she creates her timeless pieces.

This series of my work is entitled Excavation. Excavation is a search, as in archeology, yet here it becomes an excavation down into oneself. Digging deep and hard on a search into our very heart, brain, guts. I have been influenced lately by my travels to Europe and most recently to Asia. On these travels I have become fascinated with the ancient architecture, old and rusted yet still present. I touched it and wondered when I might have touched this before? Was I ever there or were we all connected in this flux we call time? In Asia, the artists  use a simple line to communicate volumes of information. I strive to speak thus through my line and marks. I use ceramic as the instrument  of my communication. It is my canvas, created completely by me. The intimacy of the act of creation carried out with such a yielding medium, allows me to caress it into the forms I need to excavate. Clay allows you to dance with it. I push it as far as I can to achieve the size, texture and colors that I need in my visual discussion of history and permanence. Digging deep into our time here and the timelessness of home.