Artist Spot

Valerie Zeman

My art pieces are evocative, engaging, and thought-provoking as one looks closely into the means of their creation and even more broadly into their meaning – whether through textiles, encaustic layering, printmaking, or painting – my art gives dimension to feelings in the same way a poet draws us in through the complexities of language. Memories surface through my art. It’s where I find my “voice,” which was far too absent in my younger life and could be why text is sometimes overlain in my work.

For example, a piece of ‘canvas’ becomes the working space for the conscious emergence of a planned thought, idea, or emotion through the application of inks, paints, graphite, wax, and other media, In working with cloth, hand-stitching, while adding layers and textures, brings a sense of meditation to the work, and machine stitching corrals an overarching cohesiveness.