Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerie Shavers.
Hi Valerie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I have been drawing and painting since I was a tiny person, elementary school age if not before then. No one else in my family has an artistic career or much experience in making artwork so I never really thought to do anything serious with it until high school and college. When I did think I wanted this as a career I bounced between art therapy, being a professional artist, and working at a gallery until finally settling on teaching art- which is what I have done for almost 10 years now. I got to learn from strong, female artists like Carrol McTyre, Jana Travis, and Eszter Sziksz which influenced me to find what I liked to create the most. So even though I teach art as a career I make sure to have time to create on my own.
I have a nice variety of art-making interests- I’ve played with jewelry making, resin jewelry, wood carving, wood burning, printmaking, acrylic/watercolor/oil paint, blackout poetry, textiles art and sewing, and most recently digital art. Being stubborn, I don’t want to just do one thing. So I am working to divide my wide variety of mediums and subjects into settings that suit them. I have smaller, original art, jewelry, and black-out poetry I list on Etsy. My digital artwork tends to be a “creepy cute” style of hearts with eyes, ghosts, and little creatures that I have uploaded to Redbubble. In the future, I would like to be a vendor for a brick-and-mortar shop where I can sell larger, original artwork and maybe more intricate jewelry.
While the dream is to be able to live off my art, I can’t discount how much I’ve grown and experimented with personally from teaching art. I’ve taught all grade levels from Pre-k to high school seniors. It is the sole reason I began digital drawing. Digital art terrified me! But after COVID affected teaching I wanted to do what I could to help my students. I couldn’t give them all paint and paper and supplies at their homes, but I would give them apps and websites to use. I was creating tutorials for how to use these tools when I had barely figured them out myself. I still don’t know how to achieve the level of detail and shading that I can when I paint, but I have learned to appreciate making the little creatures and creepy things I have doodled for years but never put onto canvas.
My current goal is to teach as long as I can and slowly build a sustainable art market to sell what I make (all the things I make). I’d love to be able to have more time to paint and create when I retire from education- stepping out of one career and walking fully invested in my passion projects.
I look back on what I enjoyed the most from my art degree and from the artists I admire to help me determine where I’m going next. Working to be in a brick-and-mortar shop and getting back to selling at art festivals is my next step, hopefully. I used to think I had to stick with one “thing.” I had to be just a painter, just a printmaker, just a teacher. I’ve completely given up on that line of thinking and want to explore what I enjoy, whether it’s considered high art or ghost doodles that are outside of my control.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been an okay road for me. My road has had a lot of potholes but I have learned to patch them up instead of avoiding them.
When I was younger money was something I constantly avoided. People would give me old, gross paint and I used it because I didn’t have the means to buy good paint. I had an art professor try to make me mix a large amount of paint for my large paintings to keep my colors consistent. But I could not justify using all that paint if it could potentially be wasted.
Going back to my family not being very “artsy”, it was difficult convincing them I could make a living pursuing an art degree. It wasn’t until I got my master’s and began teaching that I think they were real believers!
Recently my challenges have been personal issues that affect my art. It’s hard to make things when your paranoia or anxiety runs high. I also moved from living in a house to an apartment after the divorce, so I lost space for all the things I enjoy making.
With those challenges also come to my issues of how much I share. I like to think that what I make is contemplative, meaning it looks like I thought a lot about what and how I would create. But when you think more about personal issues and imposter syndrome slams into your brain, it puts me in a situation where I don’t know if I want to share my struggles, if I like showing those problems in my work, or how healthy it is to act as if they aren’t there.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I mostly paint using acrylics. I enjoy water and landscape scenes a lot! I also have made work with silhouettes, and jewelry, and found poetry- this is what most people seem to know me for.
I am most proud of all the different mediums I use and make work with. I admire artists that paint similar subjects for years and can always make it new, and fresh or somehow keep reinventing their work. But I love that I have a pick of materials to properly show what I am thinking about. I don’t what to paint beads and chains if I can use beads and chains to make it.
I’m not really sure what sets me apart from others if I’m being honest. I like to think it’s the diversity of my work while it still looks like I made it. Or how much thought I put into the idea and planning of what I make. I hope that’s what people see in my work.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
From COVID I have learned two main things that have stayed with me.
One is that you need a hobby, passion, or projects that you can do no matter what. While quarantine was full-blown, you couldn’t get out much to buy food much less paint or canvas, I found that experimenting with what I had kept me busy. I was home from teaching for about 5 months, and it feels selfish to say, but I enjoyed having that time to experiment and make things at my own pace. I’m thankful I was in a situation where I could have a positive experience through such a scary, weird time in history.
The second thing that has stayed with me was the aftermath of going back to teaching (having hybrid, virtual, and full-time students) while other professions still worked remotely. That was how much education does for students and how much I personally did for my students. I stated before I learned how to use digital art-making tools because I had students at home during the 2020-2021 school year. They didn’t pick up supplies, I couldn’t have given out that much anyway, but I needed something to help them. I worked with my school on how we would have kids in the building and keep them safe. We served food over those months during quarantine so families could feed their kids.
I realized how much money I saved not buying food, supplies, clothes, and other things I gave away to my students through the school. It has given me a deeper appreciation for teachers and all we do. It also makes me wish teachers got more say in legislation, funding, and getting what students need. Other than their parents, not many other people can be that close to students and see who needs a coat, who needs food, who can’t read, who just needs a place to read, play an instrument or draw and not do the math for 50 minutes. They say teachers are important but I wish they could see the whole child the way many of us do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.redbubble.com/people/melancholyechos/shop?asc=u
- Instagram: Https://www.instagram.com/melancholyechoart
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MelancholyEchoArt
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MelancholyEchosArt
