We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christian Valverde a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative career was in 2012-2013. At the time, I was 23 years old and had a couple dozen exhibitions and solos under my belt in the Kansas City, Missouri area. I had much creative success early, but I was at a professional and personal crossroads. I was stuck between pursuing my art full-time and earning a better living. My problem was, “How can I develop a career that complements my love for art?” I wanted to seek out opportunities that utilized and complimented my natural strengths.

Inadvertently I had some practical Graphic Design and advertising experience via my art career years before. As I was doing exhibitions in the years prior, I would assist the galleries and fellow artists I was working with in creating marketing collateral for the event, like business cards and posters. It became clear that I should pursue Graphic Design and see where it could take me. With that as the goal, I began refining what I already knew and sought after the areas I didn’t.

After many job applications, I became a Graphic Designer at The Clinton Daily Democrat newspaper in Clinton, Missouri. I joined their experienced advertising team learning the ins and outs of the challenging world of publishing, advertising, and design. I grew into my role and later became the lead graphic designer. It’s where I discovered and validated my competency to do this and other demanding creative jobs well. It helped me grow and develop a good work ethic.

Having taken this creative path, I’m a digital marketing specialist and automation engineer with a background in web development, motion graphics, and UI/UX design.

Christian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I would like to share that I started painting in High School, but it wasn’t because of art class. After a friend randomly gave me a broken canvas, I discovered my connection to painting after experimenting a lot, and something clicked. Art became profoundly personal because I discovered its potential to be authentically and intentionally expressive. My best work comes when I use it as a therapeutic session and put it on the canvas.

At this stage in my career, I’m focusing on exhibitions, selling original works and reproductions of select pieces. I am convicted that beautiful art should be for everyone, and so I’ve developed collections that can be accessible to everyone regardless of their price range. I currently have three collections available, the “Luci,” “Dogma,” and “Reflection”

The Luci Collection is an exclusive, containing rare and polished pieces. Luci is geared toward the modern art collector. These are what you will see in a gallery near you. It focuses on being timeless, one-of-one, and no reproductions, ever. These pieces tend to be my more dramatic paintings, usually on large hand-made canvases. The pieces of this collection take the most time for me, and my hope is that they can catch the audience’s eye while sparking deeper reflection.

The Dogma Collection is born out of a spiritual structure and emotional subject matter. Dogma is curated for those curious beyond themselves and their eyes toward the heavens. Growing up as a Baptist and now becoming a Catholic, faith has played a large part in my life. Throughout my life, I’ve felt God being a sort of guiding hand for me. His hedge of protection has given me courage to take risks in my life and my art. I love celebrating the ancient mysteries through my work. For all those seeking connection with their higher power, this collection is for you.

The Reflection Collection is more personal than any of my other works. It’s the mirror looking back at me. It consists of those therapeutic sessions I was alluding to earlier. It’s the space where I can offer up and share vulnerable bits and pieces of my life’s story; the ebbs and flows, the peaks and valleys that occur throughout life. Our human experience is common. When viewing the Reflection Collection, my hope is that you see some of yourself too.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yeah, one resource I needed early on in my career was community. When I started painting, at my high and lowest times, it was incredibly lonely, and it was my own doing. I wanted to take on these creative challenges myself, with no one’s help, input, or guidance. Finding a community would have helped me grow emotionally and avoid isolating myself. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been creating for years, I believe having the right people in your life that will challenge you and stretch you is invaluable.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Thank you for asking because NFTs need to be discussed more in the art world. I’m not a big fan of NFTs because, mainly, when you buy an NFT, you don’t own the art. You can’t frame it, and you can’t hang it in your home. There are no natural ownership rights of the art; it entitles you to no property, ownership rights – nothing. Unfortunately, it could be argued that NFTs are the ICO Scam (Initial Coin Offering) done again, but art and collector becoming the victim.

For those who may not know, ICOs were an unregulated means of raising funds for a new cryptocurrency venture. Companies, famous influencers, and celebrities were pitching the idea that “we’re going to make a company, mint some digital tokens, claim these tokens are related to the company and sell the tokens to the public. As we do our project, the tokens will increase in value, and more people will buy them.” The problem is that these tokens don’t entitle the customer to equity in the company or the project – zero ownership rights of anything meaningful.
NFTs function precisely the same but with art as the catalyst. The token itself represents nothing.

My explanation is all to say that I’m producing art for the public. It’s a great honor when someone wants to put my artwork in their home. Whoever will value my art enough to buy it, I want that person to fully own it.

Contact Info:

• Website: valverdearts.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/valverdearts
• Youtube: https://link.valverdearts.com/youtube