Valerie Patterson
Mourning Doves, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2020
Down Main Street, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2019
Reminiscence, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2018
Through the Doll, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2019
Entering the Fairy Tale, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2018
Leaving the Fairy Tale, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2018
The Birth of Her Cold Heart, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2019
The Curmudgeon, watercolor, 27″ x 35″, 2019
Note: Valerie Patterson’s series Ghosts in Saranac Lake includes, from above, the paintings “Mourning Doves,” “Down Main Street,” “Reminiscence,” and Through the Doll.” Her series Fairy Tales includes “Entering the Fairy Tale,” “Leaving the Fairy Tale,” and “The Birth of Her Cold Heart.” The final image, “The Curmudgeon,” stands alone.
Artist Statement
I create highly refined watercolor paintings that often explode with psychological resonance—with a sensitivity toward beauty and strength achieved through truth and honesty. My work is a continuing search for deep understanding of the human condition, fascinating in its capacity for great kindness and mercy, yet also great malevolence. Throughout my body of work, children repeatedly symbolize vulnerability and an unfeigned soul; connections between past and present are examined through the manipulation of black and white with color; and realistic and fantastic images may be juxtaposed to fabricate a surreal certainty. I strive to give voice to difficult social and political subjects in an attempt to encourage thought, emotion, and dialogue.
My series of paintings titled Ghosts of Saranac Lake incorporates the past with the present while highlighting Saranac Lake’s unique history as a health resort/sanitarium for people suffering from tuberculosis between the 1880s and 1950s. I began the series after I toured an abandoned former cure cottage. While in this grand, rambling, beautiful old building, I couldn’t help but feel the presence of those who had cured there: people who, because of an illness that often was a death sentence, left family and friends to come to the Adirondack Mountains in hope of relief and a cure facilitated by some fresh mountain air.
When I view old photos of people “taking the cure” on the local porches of former sanitariums and cure cottages, I try to imagine myself into them. I wonder how those people experienced their lives at that point. Pain, fear, discomfort, and loneliness were probably often present, and yet many TB patients survived and lived long lives. There are numerous patient stories of hope, survival, and happiness. Many patients survived to describe their time “taking the cure” in the Adirondacks as being the best time of their lives because of the tight-knit community, hope, and friendship. Imagine a community of people who truly knew the value of one day. . . one hour . . . one minute . . . .
I also have been working for the past few years on a series of paintings utilizing vintage illustrations from fairy tales. Though never conceived a series, these paintings have evolved into one over time. I began looking at vintage illustrations on the internet (I don’t recall what led me in that direction) and started to envision how I might incorporate them in my work, that is, how I could manipulate them as backdrops to some larger idea or issue.
About the Artist
Born in 1963, Valerie Patterson grew up in Ogdensburg, New York, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and a public school teacher whom she credits for her humanitarianism. Recently retired from a 34-year career teaching art, Valerie Patterson has been painting and teaching visual art for more than three decades.
“My father’s weekly sermons always had a well-crafted message, as do my paintings. Both of my parents, throughout their jobs and lives, modeled thoughtfulness and a belief in equality, social justice, compassion, and tolerance.”
An excruciatingly shy child, Valerie Patterson spent much of her time alone—thinking . . . and dreaming . . . and making art at home around the kitchen table with her mother. Her road to art, however, had some bumps; one teacher she had for elementary school art nearly destroyed her interest in the subject. Fortunately, an inspiring art teacher in junior high encouraged her, and soon she became proficient at pencil-drawn portraits of famous people. Eventually, she became known as “the class artist.”
After high school, Valerie attended the State University of New York at Potsdam, where she earned degrees in art and education and subsequently became an art teacher while spending most of her other time painting.
Asked when she decided to focus on art that conveys social and political messages, Valerie Patterson responded, “It gradually evolved as I was creating art that was meaningful to me. Once I realized the tremendous power that images can have to make people comfortable or uncomfortable, happy or sad, settled or unsettled, I knew I had a voice. I decided to use my voice to encourage people to see, think, and feel—something not always valued in our culture. Awareness replaces ignorance and opens up the possibility of change. If you can’t ignore it, then you may feel compelled to change it. I don’t recall any one thing prompting that decision, just a strong need to communicate, and to share ideas and emotions.”
Where do Valerie Patterson’s seemingly endless stream of ideas come from? “I believe that most of my ideas come through me, not from me. Sometimes, ideas simply pop into my head, seemingly from nowhere. Other times, some political or social situation will appear in my conversations, in the news, in a movie, or in many other ways—repeatedly beckoning me to paint [it].”
Valerie Patterson’s award-winning watercolor paintings have been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad, in both group and solo shows at such venues as The Bond St. Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, Virginia; the Visual Arts Center at Clarington, Ontario, Canada; the Dayton International Peace Museum, Dayton, Ohio; Monkdogz Urban Art, New York, New York; the Arts & Literature Laboratory, New Haven, Connecticut; the Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Solomons, Maryland; the Foundry Arts Centre, St. Charles, Missouri; and the Fredericksburg Center for Creative Arts, Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The recipient of numerous honors, Valerie Patterson’s awards include: “Juror’s Award of Excellence,” Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, “National Juried Exhibition: Ebb & Flow: The Power of Water”; more than one “Award of Excellence” and a “Featured Artist Award,” Manhattan Arts International; First Prize, Dayton International Peace Museum, “National Juried Exhibition of Art Encouraging Peace”; “Nelda Howell Memorial Award,” Hudson Valley Art Association, “72nd Annual National Juried Art Exhibition” (Hastings-on-Hudson, New York).
Valerie Patterson on Instagram
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