Meet Valérie

We were lucky to catch up with Valérie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Valérie, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I have so much creativity that it actually becomes a challenge. I’m joking—but what I mean is that I don’t have to keep my creativity alive: it IS, and it lives a life of its own! It’s a natural state—probably the one that defines me best. I don’t try to be creative. My challenge is to live with it—and to bring together all aspects of my life. Even when, for one reason or another, I can’t go on a shoot or to the studio, something artistic is happening inside me. Either I’m in a state of contemplation, which is my natural mode—almost like a contemplative monk—or I feel restless, impatient, and that fire will burst out very strongly through a camera, a pen, or a paintbrush… Everything inspires me : current events, my home, my inner states… I see it as a fire that I sometimes have to contain, but one that gives rise to the multidisciplinary palette in which I recognize myself.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am a multidisciplinary artist. I practice plastic photography, painting, drawing, and writing. I initially aimed to become a restorer of stone artworks. I studied art history and literature. Of southern Italian descent through both my parents and born in the south of France, I now live in the north of France, which I perceive as a significant uprooting. I seek to connect humanism and spirituality in my life and my artistic research. I primarily explore familial bonds and the relationship to the plant kingdom, as I feel a symbiosis with this realm. What characterizes my artistic research is the marriage that occurs in my works between different periods of art history, genres, and techniques. My guiding thread is a poetic relationship to the world and the question of Origin.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I spent seven years at university to obtain my three degrees, all of which contribute to my inspiration and my relationship with the world : a master’s degree in art history, a bachelor’s degree in modern literature, and a bachelor’s degree in French as a foreign language (FLE). As an adult I became interested in Buddhism and ancient spiritual traditions.All of this is a melting pot in which my practice as an author has been able to take root and develop. It is my essence… I have always had a passion for learning, and I know that I will learn engraving and ancient photography techniques (pinhole, bichromate gum, heliogravure). I am also interested in video and plan to explore this medium. You see, I am passionate about my projets. I consider this to be an asset. Finally, I have a strong work ethic and a significant capacity for work that allows me to manage multiple projects at the same time and with seriousness. I am meticulous and respect my interlocutors in the quality of what I offer.

I believe what is important is to feel at home : do you enjoy enrolling in a degree program and being surrounded by knowledgeable figures and your peers? Is your journey more self-taught? In that case, savor your freedom of movement and honor the freedom of movement and the strength that drives you. In any case, you must dream and dare! This applies at all ages and stages of an artist’s journey!

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

The book that immediately comes to mind with this question is a collection of poetry! It is the complete works of Louise Labé : sonnets, elegies, and the Debate on madness and love. Louise Labé is a 16th-century French poet. She lived in Lyon (the city where I lived for ten years and completed my studies), which played a crucial role in the invention and development of printing. The Renaissance is a human and cultural period that amazes me because it places humanity and its potentials at the center of everything, as well as the beauty of the artworks that radiated throughout Europe in various mediums : sculpture, painting, architecture, poetry. The overall thought, Humanism, is a fertile ground for the generations that followed. The fact that these poems were written by a woman adds essential significance to what precedes. Certainly, the erudite thought of the Renaissance speaks to me; but here, modernity is carried by a female artist, admired by her contemporaries, who was able to move them. Her avant-garde vision of the female condition, her passion for knowledge, and her commitment to the intellectual emancipation of women make her an emblematic figure. Through her unique and singular writing, she worked to claim an assertive femininity that does not conform to any model of femininity except her own. She used her poetic femininity to attain the status of an author. Her extraordinarily personal writing style deeply touches me. She marries in her verses: impulses, fervor, love, sadness, distress. Nothing is opposed : everything is experienced simultaneously, the world is not binary, it is vibrant. When I discovered these poems by Louise Labé as a student, it felt like a sudden permission to be myself : a woman artist, an artist who is a woman : vibrant.

Contact Info:

• Website: https//www.valerieburnandgrimaldi.com
• Instagram: https//www.instagram.valburnandgrimaldi.com
• Facebook: https//www.facebook.valerieburnandgrimaldi.com
• Linkedin: http//www.linkedin.valerieburnandgrimaldi.com
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/OGxi8ElVeYk?si=rM68QX1lurxwEOG6. = Valerie Burnand Grimaldi est accompagnée par Keen photographers

Image Credits

Image 2 : copyright Ville de Méru
Image 3 : copyright Studio Bruno Cohen
Image 4 : copyright Samantha Rouchard
Image 8 : copyright Christophe Chevalier

Images 1-5-6-7-9 : copyright Valérie Burnand Grimaldi