Leticia Valle
Medium: Mixed Media Studio Location: 11-27 44th Road - Studio# A Email: leteresita@yahoo.com Website:: https://leticiavallearte.wixsite.com/ Artist Bio: LETICIA VALLE EDUCATION Academy of Drawing Degree of Arts Mixocoac Mexico City, Mexico Oil Painting Classes with Rebeca Mendoza 1997 BIOGRAPHY At 24 years of age migrated to NYC 1994 EXPERIENCE Tattoo Artist Initiated a tattoo artist career 1999 Design Stamps for Akbal Itza Designs 2000 Including Shirts/bags/wallets Design Logo for Calpulli Mexican Dance Group 2000 Created Logo for International Calpulli Mexican Dance Group Body Painting 2004 Performed body painting for The Hidden History of Men Discovery Magazine AWARDS Second place in Artistic Expression Designer 2000 Develop the original designs for Messenger bags for Artificial NY Selected among NYC artist for the May 5 Mexican Celebration Aztec Calendar Painting 2002 Among NYC artists, selected to celebrate and illustrate the May 5 Mexican Celebration in the NYC Mayor Mansion under the Bloomberg Administration SKILLS Professional Tattoo Artist Painter Paper Mache Art Seamstress: able to customize clothing LANGUAGES Spanish (Native Language) Artist Statement: Leticia Valle Artist Statement: From showcasing the relationship of light on the body and the relationship with the human experience I create graphite drawings that explore the diversity of textures and bodies as a whole, to creating artwork while using the human body as a canvas. By drawing realism I am able to take control of the narratives of the bodies in my artwork, allowing me to have the control I lacked in my early life. By starting to work with this medium in a time where I struggled staying employed, this helped me with the hopes of bettering my skills, and learning a new technique for the future of my work. I started to work on realism as a way to expand the tools that allowed me to create. My drive as an artist started once when a kid in elementary school asked me to draw her a little doll, and as soon as I showed her my results she said "it turned out so ugly". That provocation and disbelief stayed with me ever since then and has pushed me to better myself as an artist. I am an interdisciplinary artist that focuses on drawing realism on paper and tattooing. By referencing aspects of my experience as an immigrant I am able to create a work of art that is personal and vulnerable, relating to the ones that have come before as my experiences are not unique to me; relativity is an important concept in my artwork. My artwork relates to my family and my experience as a Mexican immigrant. Although, I experiment with a variety of mediums including but not limited to oil painting, watercolor, indian inks, color pencil and markers as a way to understand and explore the different textures and the relationship of light and darkness in different mediums. By practicing different techniques I have been able to have the knowledge of understanding light and shading, not only in blacks and grays, but any color. This accomplishment has allowed me to give volume to the shapes in my artwork. My drive to do art has come as a result of studying advertising art and discovering the different tools that have allowed me to express my voice in a way that I was not brave enough to speak before having this outlet. As a student I never imagined that these tools would be what allow me to do my job as a tattoo artist in the future. All images and text copyright Leticia Valle