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Artist Statement:
My first memory of painting was at four years of age, and I have continued painting all my life. I have had the privilege of living and studying in many countries of the world, therefore my influences are varied and many. My chief artistic influences are the great Spanish artists Picasso, Goya, Dali, El Greco and Velasquez, Turner's immense and glorious skies, New York Expressionist automatic and intuitive painting, Rothko's horizons and soft edges, the monumental forms and brilliant coloration of the Mexican Muralists Rivera and Siqueros, the sensual power of Georgia O'Keefe's landscapes, ancient and contemporary indigenous philosophy and symbolism, and the endearing beauty and eternalness of nature.
Over the past twenty-five years, I have investigated humanity's fundamental relationship to nature, and conversely, the destruction of humanity and the natural world through technology, war and pollution. Although I have worked in printmaking, sculpture and painting, my recent installation work combines paintings with multi-media, mixed-media interlocking installations to create full- immersive environments.
Between 1980-1990, I created a series of over one hundred earth-based sculptures entitled, Tree People, dedicated to the concept of a metamorphic relationship with nature, that begged the ...
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Artist Galleries:
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Artist Reviews:
Los Angeles Times, Calendar, Friday, October 13, 2000 by Leah Ollman states,
“Celebrating Life Forces: Linda Vallejo’s Paintings are generated by her deeply felt connection to exactly those fundamental life forces – birth, nature, spirit – that are spurned as quaint or old-fashioned by the hippest tier of the contemporary ...
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Collections:
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Commissions:
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Exhibitions for Linda Vallejo:
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The "Los Cielos" 1996-2000 Series seeks to integrate my understanding and experience of ceremony, personal love of nature, and healing through nature. "Los Cielos" depict celestial figures floating in surrealistic skyscapes. Often, in sharing these paintings with others, I am told deeply personal stories of personal catharsis and healing. One of my goals as a painter has been to touch collective unconscious and I believe that "Los Cielos" has been successful in reaching a place deep within the viewer. It is my hope that these works bring peace, healing and balance to the viewer.” To date, I have completed over fifty "Los Cielos" paintings in acrylic and oil on canvas and masonite. Each painting contains a minimum of 100 layers of paint, taking over one year to complete.
I have always seen my environment from a ‘natural’, rather than an ‘urban’ viewpoint. My good teacher, Twyla Nische, a Seneca Oneida elder, taught me that we can know and understand our ‘natural selves through nature,’ and have held this truth as a guiding point in my life and creativity. I search for this natural environment, even while surrounded by the ever-present and immense urban sprawl.
This natural environment is an exact mirror of our bodies, mind, spirit and creativity. The earth is laden with the image of the human body and all of its possibilities. Within trees one can see the image of the female vulva and male organ; limbs, torso, head, mind and spirit. The roots are the major organs; the truck, branches and leaves become the body; and the mind and spirit are seen and understood in the wind curling through its leaves.
The place in which the earth meets the sky is a parable of the human condition. The horizon line reflects the physical body with its curving, undulating lines and hardened forms; and the sky above, with wind, sun, storms and quiet speaks of the mind, spirit and creativity, and all of their unpredictability and volatility.
I believe that this natural environment is a fundamental source of healing and essential for any individual to know and understand who they are and what they are meant to create in this life. Standing alone in nature; hours on end, drinking in the wind, earth, and sky I have known this healing from the natural environment. This remains my perception of my ‘environment’, a wondrous place of knowing and renewal.
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