We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Valerie Valera. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Valerie below.
Valerie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
So at the time I’m living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the day I worked as a professional fetish photographer and on the weekends I rotated between photographing queer parties and curating local art markets at my friends kava bar. Looking back it was honestly such a mood. I was busy, but I was finally at a point where I was fully making a living off of my many creative talents. And little side gigs would pop up for me. I felt like there was a genuine momentum building. I start even getting asked to showcase work in local galleries and organizations. I felt like the city was finally noticing my existence.
And then one day out of the bloom I happen to meet this amazing guy named Isaac on the last day of his vacation. We end up spontaneously spending the day together and even until the last few hours before his flight leaves. A very Fort Lauderdale kind of story really. I was mesmerized by him we exchanged contacts and went our ways. I told myself not to fall too quickly or have expectations, but shockingly we continued to talk and he would even visit every few weeks. We were both kinda perplexed as to what to do. As the days went by I found myself more and more in love with him. One day during a visit we were relaxing on the sand on the beach, in a very direct and Capricorn fashion, he said to me “I like you. I think you’re a beautifully amazing person and I would like to date you.”
And in that moment I knew exactly what I wanted and I said “I would like to date you too.” And thus started the process of rearranging our lives. I had a host of artwork and belongings, I mean equipment on top of equipment as I had brought the studio living space I was residing in to its full potential. It was a really chaotic time actually. I had multiple friends and family pass abruptly and I had a lot of things I needed to do before I could really even address moving. And through all of it Isaac was with me. He helped me so much. He built up my trust so quickly that it was almost alarming to me, but in the best way possible. I never met a soul like him, and yet in just a few months I begun to feel like we went through so many experiences that we were old lovers. Everything about the relationship just fell into place so effortlessly. And we were so bluntly honest with each other about our endeavors, our feelings and desires, just everything. It was like we could be fully human in front of each other and it was magical.
I had built up enough confidence in my work that when it came down to who should move I agreed to. It was so weird, because I think to a lot of peers and friends were confused as to why I would move from the set up I had to a completely new area and dynamic, though in reality I felt like I was starting to get type casted after awhile and I wasn’t being seen for my full potential. I knew that if I took the experience I had with curating and networking in Florida that I could apply that to new areas in places it hasn’t been done before. And I’m all about the local business as a lot of genuine culture comes from these places that are inclusive and become amazing hubs for creativity. So moving from a place that I felt was beginning to look like too many corporations to a small town vibe was something I saw potential in.
Now I live in Texas! Its definitely a change and has new challenges to overcome, but I feel the slower pace has given me the opportunity to readdress myself and my work while living a less distracting lifestyle. I find myself blossoming in new ways that just make me feel more like myself and I’m really proud of some of the new work I’m creating.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
A jack of many trades, I dance from medium to medium as an artist so it’s always been hard for me to contextualize myself. I find my approach to work has always been through the need for catharsis of my emotions. I try not to think past an initial desire to do something and build upon that. My curiosity runs deep and I often get bored of repetitions, thus I’m always trying to change the techniques and patterns I have developed for the new. It started with painting and mark making and grew into collage and digital, and once I started to use my own photography for my mixed media work something clicked.
I believe I’m most well known for my photography, which started at the young age of 15 and really came together and flourished once I was introduced to the local drag community of South Florida. I always have such love for the drag community as they have always supported and collaborated with me. It was how I could start building my own style and gave me tons of opportunities to work with a range of artists who were always down for some spontaneous photoshoot. I surrounded myself with a ton of creative artists and created a large amount of portraiture and documentary photography of the scene at the time. This lead to my experiences becoming a fetish photographer and photographing queer party events in Miami.
My first love is always painting and mixed media though. It was only the past four years or so that I started getting recognition as a painter and mixed media artist. My mixed media and painting work I associate to a tornado of emotions caught for an instant. Every color and line has an accent or outline.I often bleed one image over another carrying almost an abstract surrealistic and Chagall dreaminess to them as I favor what can provoke over what makes sense.
Collectively I’ve had the pleasure of gaining a large range of unique experiences. I photographed anything from personal resume headshots to fetish and everything in-between. Art handling, curating, showcasing in exhibitions, and becoming assistants to multiple artists are just a few of the hats I’ve worn.
What I want to leave with viewers of my art is an exposure to something genuine. I think that capitalism and society pressures us to always be the best and the top, but not everyone flourishes in that environment. To me this just leaves a lot of important and amazing work unrecognized as what is considered good various over time. I’m much more invested in understanding my own language; why I am drawn to certain things and why they stimulate me so? I describe it as building on dreams and memories in a journey to find my true essence. The deeper I dive into myself the more I see of every person and individual as well though. So while I feel I am building upon my own inner language I am also intertwining with a deeper unconscious dialogue of the human experience. So when I strive for my truest form one can look at my work and be inspired to do the same for themselves. And this is something that can be measured by mere brush strokes or technical skill. I’m looking past that and deeper. I want to produce the kind of work that Frances Bacon made, where the whole thing could be lost in a single brush stroke and one is often chasing a direction only felt by the wind. I’m much fascinated with the unconscious.
As of recent I’ve started designing clothing and tattooing. Very different then my usual mediums, but I find myself naturally gravitating towards them. I do a lot of patchwork and printing on clothing and it’s like a new form of collage work for me. Skin on the other hand is completely new unique canvas. I gave myself the first tattoo I did on skin and it was an almost spiritual experience.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I believe society needs to water their creative foundations more then merely making their city look like a nice place to buy real-estate. I’ve had way too many experiences discovering that their isn’t opportunity for talented individuals to get to the level of success they truly have due to it not making an immediate capital gain. We need to stop looking at art as being something only transactional and something that should be incorporated in everyone’s life and culture. We see how much art impacts people’s lives and well-being. We see how it helps us process and understand experiences we go through. We see what it can do for one’s mental health. Why is it that the art curriculum is always the first to go when short on funding?
Why is funding not prioritized when it comes to supporting the arts in local communities? How many amazing undiscovered Picasso’s have we lost to society simply not caring? When did success only come from privilege? We need more places like libraries where communities can have access to knowledge that they can better themselves with for free. We need more places where new artists can participate and learn from other peer artists that extends more than just art markets where artists are charged expensive fees and don’t get reimbursed their efforts. Those in power need to begin to see through the eyes of the less fortunate people in their community and really give constructive solutions for commerce and collaboration.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Like many people during the pandemic I had to readdress my whole life. I was always striving to become a full time artist, but after college I struggled just to stay afloat. Quickly I fell into working the hospitality industry where times and money both seemed to escape me, this becoming a viscous cycle where I lied to myself that working for more and more luxiourious restuarants would somehow give me the money and opportunity to transition to a full time artist. At this point I still had my various facial piercings dyed down with clear retainers to appease my employers. I always pushed the boundary of my appearance. It was seen and felt and even customers would question to my activities outside of employment, sighting me as the one thing that sticks out amongst the corporative environment.
In the midst of the pandemic I hit a breaking point. I no longer wanted to both chase what I loved while erasing it when seen by the public. I just wanted to be me all the time. I didn’t want to be clean cut and pressed and robotic anymore. I am of great character and good manner so what does something as trivial as appearance have to do with that? To me it was beyond. If a mere appearance is the thing that stops someone from showing respect then I’d rather know sooner. I got my bridge pierced and tattooed my hands. Something luxury restaurants would never tolerate. I made decisions to change my body that are not accepted by society at large. I made it to where you judge me faster or I love you sooner. I made it so I never have to belittle myself to such silly work experiences again. I purposely made it harder for myself to fit in anywhere in society, thus leaving myself with the only option of being the artist I always wanted to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: Valeraartwork.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valeraartwork
Image Credits
Valerie Rose Valera