Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerie Hollstein.
Hi Valerie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Southern France and credit my childhood and culture with the creativity and imagination I have developed to this day. I traveled the world extensively thanks to my career with Delta Air Lines and I have lived in Utah for the past 40 years. I graduated with a fine arts degree from the University of Utah with which I built solid foundations in drawing and painting. I spent countless hours creating before adventuring in the business aspect of art. In 2016, I entered the Art Prize in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a mega glass project 10 feet by 16 feet. “Continental U.S” was a crazy project I would never dare attempt now!
Since then, I have not stopped exploring and experimenting with several different mediums. I love the journey of creation and remain inspired by my direct surroundings. Utah is my home now and my passion for Western subjects fills the narrative I am thrilled to explore.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life is never a smooth road but it would not be worth living if it was. Each of us builds our experiences from the heartaches and wonderful moments we pass through.
These moments make you who you are and it takes many years to enter this different perspective of watching who you have been and who you can still be. So for the creative minds out there, my advice is just to create and let it flow.
The rest will follow on a certain timeline if it is your passion to create.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am best known for my vitreous glass paintings. I chose the medium of glass because I love the colors and random forms that can emerge in the difficult assembly of my pieces. I strive to incorporate movement and expression with a sharp, unbending product. It is a metaphor for life. “How to find beauty in the difficult’. Most of my projects are neither classified as paintings nor as mosaic works, they are both.
I sketch or paint on wood or glass panels to guide my glass shards and I then try to refer to the compositions previously selected from my images, partial images, drawings, and paintings as faithfully as I can or not!
Sometimes the process is smooth, and other times “happy accidents” still add richness to the piece. I think many artists use glass as stained glass, mosaic work, blown glass, kiln glass, and glass collages but I set myself apart by really trying to paint with my glass,
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Art is an expression of personal experiences and differs from one artist to the next.
For me, living with different cultures made me grasp the world slightly differently. However, I have always needed to express beauty as an end-in-itself.
Pricing:
- $3.00 a square inch partial glass
- $3.50 a square inch full glass
Contact Info:
- Website: http://valeriehollstein.com/
- Instagram: @valeriehollsteinart
- Facebook: Valerie Hollstein
