YOUR AD HERE »

Summit County Right Brain: Furniture designer and painter Raven Silianoff holds showing in Breckenridge

Interviewed
by Heather Jarvis
hjarvis@summitdaily.com
Raven Silianoff in a local painter, jewelry maker and furniture designer. Her work will be on display at Art Supply Breckenridge throughout December. There will be an opening Saturday, Dec. 12, from 4–8 p.m.
Heather Jarvis / hjarvis@summitdaily.com |

IF YOU GO

What: Raven Silianoff art showing

When: Saturday, Dec. 12, 4–8 p.m.

Where: Art Supply Breckenridge, 201 S Ridge St, Breckenridge

Follow her on Instagram at: aravensart

Raven Silianoff has always been a creative person, but never really felt like she could call herself an artist until recently. She’s a jewelry maker and designs and builds furniture for her and her husband’s company, G&R Creative Enterprises. She began painting several years ago after her son asked her for some paints to work with in high school. She watched him create these colorful and impressive pieces and decided she wanted to have some fun with it as well. She began painting, which led her to take a drawing class; and, for the last four years now, she’s been taking art classes at Colorado Mountain College. Now that her son, Bryce, has finished college and works in the family business, she enjoys collaborating with him, and the two both say they are inspired by each other’s work. Silianoff’s work will be on display at Art Supply Breckenridge throughout December, including a headboard she created with Bryce. There will be an opening Saturday, Dec. 12, from 4–8 p.m.

Summit Daily News: What inspires you?

Raven Silianoff: Nature for sure inspires me. Color and fun — fun is the main thing, to have some fun, try things — I’m just getting to the point where I can start to paint things that I think of and be able to draw them as well in a somewhat recognizable fashion. It’s kind of like this dream come true, I’ve always thought, “Oh, I’d love to be an artist,” and, even though I made jewelry, made clay ceramics, done all sorts of things, people just lately have started to call me an artist doing this stuff.



SDN: How long have you been in Summit and how did you get her?

RS: I have been here since ’82. I met my husband when I lived in Aspen, and he lived here. After we dated for a couple years and decided to move in together, it was cheaper for me to move here than for him to move there. I moved to the county, worked at the Snake River Saloon … like all of us, ski during the day and work at night. Now we are builders, I also am a realtor. … I worked restaurants and then we switched over to building. … This has been my fun hobby, which is actually great because my husband is allowing me a lot of freedom to do my art. When I’m not painting now, he’s like, “Hey, what’s going on?” … I’ve got a great support system.



SDN: What is your work environment like?

RS: I work inside, usually with music or in silence, usually in the mornings, but I fit it in throughout the day if I have something dry enough to work on. Both Bryce and I, we both usually have about, he’s got like 25, I have like 10 going at once. We have a downstairs room because we are remodeling that isn’t used too much, and we have that filled up (with paintings).

SDN: What other hobbies and interest do you have besides your art?

RS: We ski all the time, bike ride, hike — all the things that we do and that love here in Summit County, get out there and do it. A lot times, I’ll use photographs that we’ll take from our adventures outside and paint or use that as a basis and go from there.

SDN: What advice would you give to other aspiring artists?

RS: Just do it. That’s the main thing. … I think fear of failure and not doing well stopped me for a long time, and then just seeing Bryce just go, that inspired me a lot. It’s funny because he says a lot that I inspire him; he says it’s a circle. I also have some other artist friends who live in Salida and some artist friends (who) live in Boulder, and we share things back and forth. … the artist community is a fun thing.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.