A New Artist With New Work - Josh Magdaleno

    On April 12, 2021, Valerie Green gave an artist lecture about her recent photographic work

at Cal State Fullerton. Green recounted her reasoning for creating the series’ and showcased

her favorite pieces. Green’s most recent work is a detailed look at places where most people

would not normally expect to find beauty. Her work can be described as  conceptual, as well

as situational, because it is abstract, and uses pure color and shape combined with a

situation to become meaningful. It discusses many things that have to do with the human

condition, and daily life in a very existential way; why we have what we have, the fact that we

overlook so many things in our lives, and the nature of time and how it changes things.

Green showed the series “Look Up,” (2014) in which she took the plastic screen protector from a phone, stuck it on her moonroof, and photographed it over time. Each photo shows a different sky, different pieces of moisture or debris on the glass, and, of course, the degeneration of the plastic cover. Looking at these photographs gives the viewer a nostalgic feeling of beauty and hope. In another series, “Left to My Own Devices” (date), she sprayed a variety of electronic screens with different cleaners and photographed  the worlds of color held within each droplet. This series is conceptual, visually stunning , and engaging. Some of these photos remind Jackson Pollock’s drips as the color is splayed out across the composition, but it is neater and more concise in its aesthetics. Green’s lecture showed a kind of photography most CSUF students had never seen before, and definitely inspired many to make their own unique art. 

Word Count: 281


Left to My Own Devices Untitled images (2014)

These are two of Green’s photos from the series “Left to My Own Devices”. Each droplet of cleaner holds its own world of reflections and pixels behind it that invites the viewer for a lengthy experience of searching and examining each drop. 









“Look Up” Untitled Images (2014)



Pictured above are two of Green’s works  from the series “Look Up”. The changing  skies and state of the phone cover g, prompts one to imagine what the artist  was doing when she snapped each photo. Did the weather have an effect on her mood? Was it a good day or a bad day? This series encourages  us to examine our lives and the fleeting moments of beauty that we overlook each day. 

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