Jul 28, 2022
“The Artist is Present” is a special series which is being hosted under the Catalyst: A Creative Industries Podcast of the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at Chapman University. “The Artis is Present” was developed under the direction of the Phyllis and Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art’s Director, Fiona Shen, and Registrar, Jessica Bocinski, so that a wider audience would have the opportunity to hear directly from the artists in the Escalette Collection at the University. This final episode of the series features Paul Valadez. Paul grew up in Stockton, CA and in 1997 got a BFA in Interdisciplinary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute. He received his MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina in 2003 where he was awarded a Weiss Fellowship for Urban Livability. He currently resides in Edinburg, TX where he is a full-time lecturer at the University of Texas-Pan American. His current work represents his experiences growing up in a bi-cultural (Mexican American and Anglo) household and childhood memories of life in the Central Valley of California. Valadez uses mixed media, acrylics, metal, and text to create works that deal subtly with race, culture, and history through a concept of “old signage.”