Valerie Storey, Author - Artist

Watercolor/Mixed Media

I can't recall a time when I wasn't excited by art and I only agreed to attend kindergarten after I was promised my own easel. For many years afterward, however, my main focus was studying art history, but later on I began experimenting with my own drawing and painting when I became interested in book illustration. I've now reached a point where everything seems to intersect: what I paint or draw reflects what I'm currently writing and vice versa. I'm particularly fond of Japanese watercolor with the addition of sumi and other inks, but I also love oil pastels, pastel pencils, and water-soluble graphite--anything that can be used in a sketchbook which, perhaps because I am a writer first and foremost, is my most comfortable place to be.

A few months ago I was asked if I had an "artist's statement." I really had to think hard about that one as my interests are so varied and my choices can sometimes appear to an outsider overly-random, even chaotic. On any given day I can be working with charcoal, or designing characters for a "still-in-my-head" picture book, or painting with twigs in my local park. But after giving the matter some serious thought, I think much  of my current work--even the picture books--can be summed up by a single theme:

"I paint the landscape of grief against a background of hope."

Grief isn't my favorite place to be, but since the death of my husband several years ago it is always with me, something I can't ignore; nor do I want to. Learning to appreciate what grief has to offer has become as natural to me as breathing. The pieces below are some sketchbook studies from a recent trip to England where I also began writing a new work-in-progress, a gothic novella exploring the many aspects, and consequences, of transforming grief into hope.