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

Selena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

As a child, my parents always made a point to visit the art galleries and art museums wherever we went. I remember walking in one gallery when I was in my early teens and being completely floored by the art I saw. I think I sat in a corner of the gallery for at least a couple hours digesting every book on Michael Parkes they had on the shelves. By the time I walked out, I had such a profound clarity that if he could make a living selling his art, then that was what I would do. A few years later on another visit to an art museum, I first witnessed the art of Salvador Dali. I was flabbergasted by what this man had created so long ago, and it was so lifelike, yet utterly bizarre. I had always experienced really vivid, wild dreams and nightmares because I grew up on a diet of horror, sci-fi and fantasy films. Dali’s artwork convinced me that translating these chaotic worlds into drawings, and later paintings, might be worth sharing with the world. I’ve spent the better part of my adult life learning and refining, but these two experiences really shaped the kind of art I wanted to create and what I envisioned a career as an artist could be.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an oil and acrylic painter that attempts to craft tumultuous worlds that explore the bonds humans have to nature. I like to blend more abstract freeform painted backgrounds with realistic subjects such as plants, animals, fungi, and occasionally humans. (only the ones I like) I like to play with the viewer’s sense of expected reality and spatial perception, ever hopeful that they will be surprised. I have a real sense of impending doom when it comes to the future of our planet (thanks to my environmentalist husband) and a lot of my paintings evoke a sense of unease. I’m also really fascinated by how limited our definition of beauty has become, and I love to paint unexpected subjects with meticulous care because I think they are beautiful. We are all guilty of overlooking the world around us, but I feel like many people have completely disconnected from nature. Sometimes I wonder if humans even remember they’re just mammals? I don’t feel like art has to scream social commentary to be relevant, but I do like to provide some context for those who like to delve deeper.

My art has been shown across my home state, and collected internationally. I typically paint my surreal-ish paintings on panels, but I’ve also created a line of canvas limited edition giclées and some smaller giclées on paper because I’m a slow painter, and I believe art shouldn’t be a 1% club. You can purchase any of my pieces on my website at selenavalenti.com.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

In my experience, the art world as a contained ecosystem is one of its biggest downfalls. There is this constant competition for access, and it gets ugly. Artist to artist, and especially gallery to artist. Then you add collectors into the mix, and it can quickly become a world that doesn’t inspire much creativity. I think the reason for this is because art has become so monetized and there is very little value placed on creative professions in our current society. At one time, talented individuals were recognized and supported because their talents enriched society for everyone. There were schools where artists gathered together and were trained and then set up with their own patrons to ensure their success. I think the way the future generations of artists are educated and sent out into the world could benefit from the logic of this earlier system.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I had a professor in college that was constantly telling me I should be doing something different whenever she was supposed to be critiquing my work. It was never constructive or really relevant at all, almost like she had no words to comment on my art because it was just so terrible, or so my young brain assumed. It was very unfortunate because, prior to meeting her, I really admired her art and was eager to learn from her. She was actually the head of my department so I missed out on various opportunities for showings, grants, scholarships because of her obvious dislike for me. I wasn’t as resilient as I would like to say and her criticism really did a number on my motivation. On my graduation day, one of my most loved professors looked at me and said you know she treated you this way because your work is achieving what she is trying to do with her own art, only better. It still took me a while to move past her, but creating my art is still the only way I am happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://selenavalenti.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selenavalentifineart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abstractsurrealism