We were lucky to catch up with Valerie Corvin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Valerie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Lots of hours in the studio is the key to success. The old adage that one needs to put 10,000 hours of practice in to be successful. I think it is much longer than that. The journey to discover one’s path in the creative world can be much longer and full of more detours than a typical career. Visual artist are on a journey of self-discovery. Learning to listen to your inner voice is hard to do. Cool things other artists do can distract and put one on a path of experimentation that can sometimes be a long detour. Getting back to listening to your inner voice took me awhile. I found my way back with the help of mediation and grounding exercises. Visualizing my feet grounded to the earth is one visualization that helped me. tremendously. Secondly, I took a class with a master teacher who required weekly goals and required the class to read the goals out loud to the whole class. That really helped drum into me – listen to my intuition and to check in with myself on what my gut is telling me is the next move on a painting. I love listening to those type of voices in my head.
Valerie, 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 never thought I would be an artist. My dad was a famous jewelry designer winning 50 International design awards. Drawing and painting didn’t come easily to me so I avoided the arts for some time. Then I turned 40 yrs old and a little voice inside my head guided me to explore my creative side. One painting workshop turned into a weekly class for years, that turned into 3-5 times a week painting in my home studio. First, I painted realistic paintings and then in few years once I had a good grounding in painting, I found myself drawn towards abstraction. Abstraction was the leap of faith into the wild side of art making I was looking for. Abstraction represented a chance for me to be more me and have the outside world’s expectations fall away. Painting abstracts is about following your intuition and your feelings. No one could say that a painting didn’t represent say a bowl of fruit correctly. Everyone sees something different in an abstract painting. Abstraction is more a feeling and a personal communication. It’s very individual.
My artworks start as playful marks and shapes, and lots of color. A few layers of that then order needs to be layered on top. I paint over a lot of the playful layers to quiet it down – reducing down the play to only revealing a few of the interesting initial marks and shapes. Large geometric areas appear on the final surface with bits of the playful area poking out to add interest.
When I make a painting I often have the shapes, marks and lines I notice in nature in mind. The natural world is exciting to me, the constant state of change and uniqueness of every shape within the landscape. Traces of time on the earth from the cracks in a rock formation to the spread of the limbs of trees are all inspiring shapes and lines. I believe one looking at my paintings can feel or sense that connection to the earth.
Included here is my CV
Artist Statement
I loved lying in the grass looking at clouds as a kid. Those memories and feelings still fill my imagination. Shapes in nature spark my creativity. My artwork is about reclaiming that sense of wonder from looking at nature. Searching for that sensation of aliveness. All the while working from my intuition for authenticity. Ultimately my visual language of shapes, marks and lines bring forth the feelings we all share of joy, beauty, curiosity, and our fundamental humanness.
Bio
Valerie Corvin is an American contemporary abstract painter working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Corvin holds a Master of Arts, Museum Administration and worked for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as a museum educator. She began painting twenty years ago, studying fine art at the California College of the Arts and with numerous painting instructors from around the country. Drawn to fine arts from her family background, both parents are artists, her dad an international award-winning designer of fine jewelry, and her mother a painter and sculptor.
She is a founder of an arts center in her community, the Piedmont Center for the Arts, and managed its visual arts program for eight years. Promoting and creating opportunities for fellow emerging artists is a passion, and Corvin is the founder and administrator of a juried art competition exhibition now in its eighth year. In addition, Corvin recently concluded a 9-year term as a Trustee of the Board of Directors at the Oakland Museum of California.
CV
Arts Education
Master of Art, Museum Administration, John F. Kennedy University, 2006
Fine Arts Education studied painting and drawing at California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA, and focused interest in abstract painting with numerous art teachers around the US: Steven Aimone, Carl Heyward, Krista Harris, Nicholas Wilton, Jerry McLaughlin, Diane Williams, Sara Post.
Gallery Representation:
Artsy
Saatchi
Jen Tough Gallery for art fairs: Red Dot Miami 12/22, ArtExpo New York 3/23, Art Santa Fe 7/23
Solo Exhibits
Lireille Gallery, Oakland, November 2024 – January 2025
Manna Gallery, August 4-September 16, 2023
Fusion Gallery, Artist Solo Spotlight, March 2022
Wilder Art Gallery, Orinda, January 2022
UCSF Women’s Health Center, “Serenity” January -May 2022
UCSF Women’s Health Center, “Serenity” 2014
Group Show 2023 and 2024
North Berkeley Wealth Management, “Acts of Discovery”, September – December 2024
Uptown Fine Art Gallery, “Wide Open Spaces” April 22-June 3, 2023
Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, Inaugural Exhibit, May 12-June 26, 2023
Juried Art Competitions Sampling
2024
Belvedere Tiburon Library Art Gallery, October – December 2024
O’Hanlon Center for Arts, “Women Making Their Mark”
2023
Marin MOCA “There is Magic Here!”
Village Square Theater & Art Gallery “Brilliance” with Lamorinda Arts Alliance
2022
Palo Alto Art Center “RESTART“ Exhibit
San Fernando Valley Arts & Cultural Center “In the Abstract” Exhibit
Artist Alliance “Nature Morte” Exhibit
Artist Alliance “Isn’t It Lovely” Exhibit
2021
San Francisco Women Artist Gallery, “Art Matters” juror Elena Gross
realART Spring Juried Art Show, juror Sylvia White
Gallery Route One, “Crossing the Divide” juror Donna Seager
Jen Tough Gallery “Bay Area Artists Book” juror Jen Tough, to be published later 2021
2020
International Society of Acrylic Arts, “11th Annual Juried Art Show” juror Dean Mitchell
Manhattan Arts International, “Her Story” juror Renee Phillips
Sanchez Art Center, “Left Coast Juried Art Show” juror Carin Adams
The Painting Center NY, NY, “The Blues” jurors Lisa Pressman and Kathy Cantwell
San Francisco Women Artists Gallery “A Leap Year” juror Ashley L. Voss
Arc Gallery, SF, “SNAP” juror Stephen C. Wagner
2019-2010
Sacramento Fine Arts Center, “Bold Expressions” juried 2019
Harrington Gallery, “Fresh Works” juror Philip Linhares 2017
O’Hanlon Center for the Arts “Feast of Color” juror Leslie Allen 2018
Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery, “New Currencies” juror Jennifer Perlmutter, 2019
www.valeriecorvin.com
I am most proud of all the articles, juried art shows and solo exhibits I have had in my art career.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
What is exciting about being an artist is the challenge and the struggle to creative. Blocking out the all media and friends that flash through your mind with their ideas and comments. So you can hear your own voice, your intuition speaking to you. Letting those instincts guide you to make each and every mark or shape that comes from your gut. You make one shape and then you will feel the urge to make the next shape. I think painting abstracts requires a degree of bravery and courage.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I have had a lot of good painting instructors. But one stands out. It was the instructor that asked me to follow my gut. The instructor that didn’t show me how to paint (like him) but how to paint with my intuition. To block out all the critics in my head and just listen to the voice inside my head to follow my instincts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.valeriecorvin.com
- Instagram: @valerie_corvin_abstracts
Image Credits
Julie Reckle Photography