Featured Artist: Valerie Prosper Imparato

Valerie Prosper Imparato is originally from Haiti ,but has lived all over the world. Valerie’s aesthetic draws from the diverse cultural influences in her upbringing, with an emphasis on East-African and Caribbean art.

Valerie’s art teeters on the balance between the ethereal and the earthly; the fantasy of the whimsical and the perspective of the realist. She hopes to make art that inspires dialogue on issues of faith, race, immigration, feminism, and the plight of the oppressed.

Her most recent work is focused on the Black Woman and all of the identities folded within the intersectionality of blackness and womanhood.

Valerie attended our first Boston Visual Artists meeting at Zuzu in Cambridge, and we were all stunned by her work, and we are excited to share this interview and samples of her work.

Is there an overall theme you try to express in your work, or does it change piece to piece?

It definitely changes piece to piece, but I think that I get in these moods where a series of pieces will be about the same thing. Lately a lot of my work has been about black women and presenting black women as holy. It has been about the godliness that lives within black women. As a Christian, there are all of these representations of white Jesus which are frankly, historically inaccurate. More than that though, I think that many black women don’t see themselves in the American Church, and they certainly are not often presented as holy or pure in American media. The golds that I use, and the Renaissance style-esque aesthetic that I incorporate in my work all point towards that holiness.

I see you are from Haiti, how did you end up in Boston? How do you find the art scene here? What is the most artistically inspiring place that you have lived?

I am indeed from Haiti! I have moved around A LOT. I was born in Haiti, and then spent 13 years in Maryland, followed by 1 year in Johannesburg South Africa, followed by 3 years in Nairobi Kenya, followed by college in New York (with a brief stint in Spain), law school in Cambridge MA, back to NY for work, and back to Cambridge when I got married a couple of years ago. So I guess the short answer is that I moved back two and a half years ago after I got married because my now husband was located here. I am still learning the art scene in Boston. I have found great community here, which is wonderful, but I will say that it has been harder for me to find my art people in Boston than it was in New York. The most artistically inspiring place that I have lived is New York, but only because New York is filled with art from all over the world.

How did you start as a visual artist?

I have only recently been calling myself an artist (in the last 5 years), but I have always loved art. I did a lot of art work with my mom when I was a child, and drawing and painting have always been soothing for me. I started taking my work more seriously when I was in law school and the stress of life made me a true insomniac. I would paint at night since I couldn’t sleep, and then I had so much art around the house that I figured I should start sharing it with others.

What kinds of reactions do you think your art gets? How do you feel about that?

Recently a lot of people have told me that my art makes them “feel something,” and that’s the goal. It is often difficult for people to articulate, which is great, because it’s difficult for me to articulate too. I think that a lot of my work feels intimate, even though it’s about more universal themes. I love that people feel that way.

Do you hope that your work will inspire a change in the people who view it?

I do. I hope that my art makes people view black women differently. I hope that it makes people view faith differently. I hope that it makes people view the world differently. Ultimately, I hope that people share a private moment with my work, and that that moment causes introspection.

How do you start a piece? Do you have the finished idea in your head when you begin?

I never have a finished idea in my head before I start a piece! I think that has happened maybe once. The way that I start depends on the kind of work I am going to do. If it is mixed media, I usually start with an image that speaks to me, and create the are around that. If I am working on canvas, I usually start with the figure that I am going to paint, and then create my world around her.

Are there any artists who inspire you?

So many. I have always been inspired by Dali’s surrealism. I am very into Kehinde Wiley lately. I would say that any artist that puts themselves out there inspires me. It’s a really hard thing to do, and it is sharing such a personal part of yourself.

What draws you to East African and Caribbean art?

I have always been drawn by the color and whimsy of both East African and Caribbean art. A lot of Haitian art has this ethereal quality to it, and I often incorporate that into my work. Kenyan art to me has always felt alive. It’s just so full of life and color, and I love that.

What is your goal as an artist?

I think I am still trying to figure that out. I want to make art that is true. If that truth sparks something in others, then all the better, but I never want to make art for other people.

Valerie’s work can be found on her website Valeriepimparato.com and on instagram @Vp_visualart.

Featured Artist: Steph Glass

Steph Rose Glass is a visual artist and comic book writer from Boston, currently living in New York. She makes bright things in bad taste.

How do you plan out a piece before you start?

Usually I have an idea I want to convey, which is apparently odd. I rarely sit down and paint spontaneously. I have a growing list of ideas to do, and the idea itself usually necessitates some material or another, so I figure out how to build the structure I want first and then go in and do it. I do often start with an idea and then add onto the work as it develops. It’s a difficult thing to describe! No wonder everyone’s obsessed with process.

Has formally studying art changed how you work as an artist?

I work a lot more, a lot more often, and I have people knowledgeable about art history and what I’m trying to say that I can bounce ideas off of. All of that is amazing. I have so many things that I want to do.

Has it changed how you think about and define yourself?

The downside of studying art is that it’s injected a lot of crap into my brain about galleries, and cliquey fine art politics, and art as a financial investment, and making shit for rich collectors that I could do without, and I’m trying to figure out where I want to sit in relation to all of that right now. To be honest, being exposed to so much more work has me thinking that there’s not a lot of people making things like mine. That feels good.

What is the significance of the pink tent? Is there a story or a meaning?

The pink tent is something of an in-progress piece. I wanted to create something immersive, like a naturally formed cave. It became a lesson in adapting to new discoveries — the contrast between the caged outside and the clothing that makes up the skin, and the way light filters through when you’re laying down on the inside are both things that weren’t part of my original design. I’m letting it sit while I rethink my approach to the inside and bottom, but I am quite happy with how experiential it is even now.

Are you inspired by pop/counter culture?

Sure. Though I’m not exactly plugged into modern mainstream popular culture, “counter-culture” is a super relevant influence for me. I’m a comic book reader and writer and I have a really deep appreciation for the form and how it lets you handle time and space, and right now I’m trying to talk about that with some of my “fine” artwork. Comic books are one of the few art forms still commonly considered “not art” in the post-modern art world where almost anything goes, so I enjoy really shoving that in people’s faces.

Is there a significance to the human figure in your paintings?

I enjoy portraiture as an exercise. I’ll paint any model I can get. You have no idea the number of self-portraits in my sketchbook. I’m a little bit self-obsessed. I think of a lot of my more abstract works as self-portraits too.

What kinds of reactions do you think your art gets? How do you feel about that?

I get sometimes very strange reactions. Teachers of mine often laugh in disbelief. Usually what happens is classmates and peers of mine understand or at least like what I’m trying to do formally, and often my teachers don’t. I think people react viscerally to the fact that I use colors straight out of the tube, like pure blacks and neon paints, and how casual I can be about construction and technique. Shirley Irons said, lovingly, that I’m not trying to make things in good taste, and I think that’s a completely accurate assessment. Peter Hristoff once told me he wasn’t sure if I had good ideas or if I just got lucky.

I have a really great tattoo that I use as a litmus test of people’s personalities: either they laugh and say “Holy shit, that’s awesome,” or they frown and get uncomfortable and judgey. I think my painting is the same way.

What is your goal as an artist?

I have lots of goals. I’d like to make some money, first of all. I’d like to use art to improve the real world in a tangible way. I think that’s the most important thing.

To that end, I’m really trying to illustrate the artistic process in some of my current work. Andy Gerndt keeps telling me that what artists do is magic to non-artists. And I know that personally, because I didn’t consider myself an “artist” until I was maybe 19. It’s something that can seem very opaque, very “I could never do that, I can’t even draw a straight line, that’s just not who I am.” For me, the end goal of trying to demystify art is to make it more accessible to other girls and people who don’t think they could ever do that. I could name you a lot of female artists with similar goals who improved my life so massively.

Is there a unifying theme in your work?

Not consciously, not at this point in my life. I’d call out formal experimentation as a major throughline, though. Most of my paintings are not just two dimensional images; they move off the canvas in some way, or use the canvas itself as a ground and leave it uncovered to keep focus on the actual elements. Lately I’ve been working with the idea of iconic paintings, as opposed to abstract or representational – and there’s another comic art reference, frankly. Where on the plane of complete abstraction to photorealistic representation to pure iconic representation do you fall?

I love all of the bright, expressive colors in your work. Do they mean something to you?

I try to push everything to the extreme. It often gets me in trouble in my personal life, but it does mean that I make interesting things.

Can you pick a piece and talk about what it means to you?

My diary paintings are about my sobriety. I’m thinking of calling them Counting to Infinity, which I believe I cribbed from an out-of-print version of the Invisibles by Grant Morrison called Counting to None, although you never really know where you get these things. The terrifying thing about sobriety is that it hypothetically never ends. You’re never done. You’re stuck in your own head forever, and that’s the conquest, that’s the win. The plus side is that you get to make horrible jokes about your own alcoholism, should you ever want an entire room to fall silent.

Steph can be found on instagram @stephroseglass

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Featured Artist: Madeline DeWolf

In one sentence, can you say what the series “Ethan” means to you? If it’s too personal or you’d like to leave it up to interpretation that’s ok. “Ethan” is about healing, the series itself is a story about my experience with sexual assault, it is about speaking up and getting stronger.

How do you start a mixed media piece like this? Do you start by painting, writing, or something else?I usually start a piece like this by brainstorming an idea after I’ve got a clear narrative I begin to collect images and sort through the box of stuff I already have.Then I just go for it, arranging pieces of paper and seeing what works. I glue everything down and then I add to it with paint or ink.

How did you start as a visual artist? Do you have any specific artists who inspire you?Growing up art was my first form of expression, my most comfortable form of communication. My mother took me to a lot of museums in Boston as a child,so my first experiences in the world of art were with some of the greats; Monet, Rembrandt, Degas. Today some of my favorites are Ray Johnson, Jenny Woods and Georgia O’Keeffe.

What is the significance of the color in the series?I use to want to be a therapist, that’s what I thought I would be when I grew up, specifically an art therapist. I’ve studied a lot about the psychology of color and how different colors make people feel different things. I try to incorporate color in this way into a lot of my pieces. With a series like this, filled with emotion, I chose colors that represented (to me) the emotions I was feeling about the pieces themselves. That’s why the paint went on last, when all was said and done, I just let the colors show how each piece made me feel.

I know you are in school for art, how do you think this affected you as an artist?

Being in school for art has changed the way I look at myself as an artist. When I started 3 years ago (with my major undeclared) I still thought of art as a hobby of mine, something I was wildly passionate about but didn’t believe could be a career. It wasn’t until I worked with my teachers Kelly Popoff and Penne Krol (two people who have been very influential to me) that I realized that I could do this if I really wanted to. It’s been a lot of hard work, sometimes discouraging even, but worth it. I feel stronger now that I’ve been through the art program at my school.

Is there an overall theme you try to express in your work, or does it change piece to piece?My work has always been very personal, more like a diary than anything. I make art about things that are often left unspoken (sex, abuse, drugs, suicide), it’s in your face and raw. Some people have told me that my work makes them uncomfortable, that secretly makes me really happy because it makes me feel like I’m doing something right. I wouldn’t say there’s a particular theme to everything I do. What I would say is that my art is form of healing for myself and the dialogues that I’ve engaged in due to showing my pieces are rewarding.

Madeline can be found on instagram at lupine_art_