Two Types of Inspiration

May 31, 2016August 18, 20181 Comment

yellow tulips

In artistic creation there are two types of inspiration, one which blooms from the conscience and one which blooms from the subconscious.

The first is when you get inspired by an emotional experience then try to immortalize the imprint of that experience through art. The second is when you, under the influence of a thoughtless drive, create something without fully understanding why then take step back and analyze where in your psyche that inspiration was rooted. Working backwards to find out why it is so aesthetically fulfilling to paint blood stain tears underneath your eyes or scribble decaying trees in illustrations.

– Valerie Parente (5-31-16)

Personal Business

May 16, 2016August 18, 2018Leave a comment

To have a career creating art must be very rewarding, but also very exhausting. As a professional artist there is no separation between your work life and your personal life, because your business draws from your personal business. Still, I can’t imagine a career avenue more perfect.

– Valerie Parente (5-16-16)

Aesthetic & Psychological Tree

May 14, 2016May 14, 20163 Comments

“The beauty in bare tree branches is how they resemble the skeletal roots in which they grow from.” – Valerie Parente (5-14-16)

Obsessive compulsive disorder has taken captive my once free hands in a misguided attempt to protect them. And as I have said before [see Raw Proof] my hands suffer from severe dryness because of frequent and thorough hand washing compulsions. So when I paint a creepy black tree on my hand it is an act of rebellion, not simply because it is a beautifully dark depiction, but because it is my way of liberating the primary physical area that OCD has manipulated. By painting something that is aesthetically pleasing to me on the area which most symbolizes my obsessive compulsive disorder, I have taken that area back and reclaimed it as my own.

OCD can crack and damage my hands all it wants, but at the end of the day my hands belong to me, Valerie, not this mental disorder. And if I want to paint a skeletal tree on my hand because it makes me feel strong in the midst of a crippling mental disorder then you bet I am going to paint a tree.

– Valerie Parente (5-14-16)