Member’s Spotlight

valerie rey

Artistic Approach

EMPOWER and bring awareness of the value of life in all its forms. From the moment that life reveals its true face there is no beginning, no end, only an ebb and flow of continuity… an eternal breath!

I work through intuition, there I come into contact with myself. I collect fallen trees, dead branches, fungi, roots, driftwood, empty walnut shells and seed pods. They are considered “dead Nature” forgotten by all because they are without value to most people. I collect them jealously as for me, they tell the story of our land, our heritage, a part of ourselves.
I sublimate my wood treasures by covering them with gold. It is a sensual act to apply a gold leaf. The gesture must be calm and precise, she asks to hold her breath at the moment of the pose, a parenthesis in the tumult, like an act at once religious and voluptuous.
Every day in my studio, I found, form and shape glass beads like tiny beings, similar but in reality, all different and once assembled, form a colony, a people. To repeat these gestures again and again is a therapeutic mediation for me.
Then comes the assemblage… gold forever symbolizing power and eternity, glass a token of purity and clarity.
At the moment they unite, the metamorphosis takes place and the resurrection takes shape, the vibrant creation of a new organic material comes to life, highlighting the value of mere life itself.
It is necessary for the whole process to take its time as it is a Re-birth. There lies all the meaning of my work.
We fully realize ourselves when we are aware that our time is limited, which gives more value to life and allows us to appreciate the beauty of what surrounds us, every minute, every second that we are given.

Wondering what is it like to be alive?
It is not so much the answer that matters, but it is to ask the question.
Valérie Rey, 2018

Artistic approach Video

Valerie Rey’s Portrait :