Oral history interview with Patssi Valdez
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 32 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Valdez, Patssi
label: Interviewer
content: Rangel, Jeffrey J.
label: Names
content: Asco (Group of artists)
label: Names
content: Otis Art Institute
label: Names
content: Self-Help Graphics and Art, Inc.
label: Names
content: Gamboa, Harry
label: Names
content: Gronk, 1954-
label: Names
content: Mesa-Bains, Amalia
topic: label: Occupation
content: Artists -- California -- Los Angeles
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
label: Topic
content: Mexican American artists
label: Topic
content: Women artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Funding for the interview and transcription provided by the Smithsonian Institution Latino Inititatives Fund.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Valdez, Patssi
label: Interviewer
content: Rangel, Jeffrey J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Patssi Valdez (1951-) is a painter, and installation artist from Los Angeles, California. Valdez is known for her boldly rendered works that vary in themes from homages to female deities to mystical environments.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 80 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1999 May 26-June 2
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.valdez99
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Patssi Valdez conducted 1999 May 26-June 2, by Jeffrey Rangel, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: The interviews were conducted at the artist's home/studio in Los Angeles, California. Valdez discusses her current show at the Laguna Art Museum, "A Precarious Comfort," and the intensely personal nature of the work being exhibited; the liberating aspects of painting and her journey from dealing with the problems and concerns of the Chicano community to a more internal focus in which she examines her personal emotional life through symbol and imagination; how, in her work, landscape has come to represent emotions and states of mind; health problems and her turning to alternative methods of healing; her relationship with Asco and her eventual break from the group to pursue her art studies at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles (now Otis College of Art and Design) and in New York, and with a NEA grant to Europe and Mexico; difficulties she experienced with her decision to focus on art school and on her survival as an artist, while trying to keep in touch with friends and peers; friendships with Amalia Mesa Bains, Christina Fernandez, and Gronk, as well as with Sister Karen Boccalero whose Self-Help Graphics contributed so much to the growth of a younger generation of Chicano artists; fellow Asco artist Harry Gamboa, Jr., and their mutual goals in their art to subvert Chicano stereotypes; what constitutes Chicano art and how the Les Demon des Anges show changed her perspective; and her ability to create change through her art.