In her work, Valerie explores the third space between image and text, fact and fiction, past and present. She experiments with collage, altered found photographs, and original drawings, paintings and photographs.
Image above: Aggie, as Snow Queen. Collage created for her image-text novel Windows, completed 2012 - part of her masters thesis at the University of Washington. The image combines a photo of Valerie’s paternal grandmother Agnes as a child and Edmund Dulac’s illustration for Hans Christian Andersen’s “Snow Queen.” Published in the Seattle Review.
Above work made from or inspired by photographs of Agnes, Valerie’s paternal grandmother. From her novel, Windows, 2012.
Collage. Original photograph taken at Akatarawa Valley, New Zealand combined with photo of crouching Venus statue: damaged marble Aphrodite, Roman, 2nd century BC, Louvre Museum, public domain image. From her 2019 image-text novel Be Hold Her, part of her PhD dissertation at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington.
Art from her 2019 image-text novel Be Hold Her, part of her PhD dissertation at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington.
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Images below taken by photographer Roy Marin:
Photo of Valerie by Roy Marin, taken at Discovery Park in Seattle. Featuring Valerie & a friend replaced with an old photo of Valerie’s Swedish ancestors.
Above photographs of Valerie taken and edited by Roy Marin, conceived and designed by Valerie and Roy collaboratively.