Liz Valenti
I make 3D collage clothes and related subjects in a variety of types of paper from discarded papers through to specialist types, some found on travels abroad. The base paper I most frequently use is industrial waste.
Research is an important part of my work method and I enjoy the process of investigating and representing a garment with a personal story or a historical background. I enjoy being introduced to projects and themes which challenge my imagination. I particularly enjoy responding to detail.
The work I do is as a result of a lifetime of looking – something I was taught at art school and which I have hopefully passed on to students. The pieces I produce now are the continuation and culmination of many years of fashion being a part of my life.
I am blessed – possibly cursed!- with an endless stream of ideas which drive me on. My starting point might be the character of the paper itself, or a garment or a technique. I have been working in paper now for over ten years and I continue to love its properties.
Paper can be crisp, or soft and malleable: it can be scrunched, shredded, pleated, punched, twisted. Being repairable, it can also be very forgiving. When used with specialist adhesives it can resemble the light toughness of an eggshell.
My pieces are mainly presented in box frames and wall mounted. I like the ‘untouchable’ presentation of objects placed behind glass which could be in the form of domes, display cases or frames. I think this fascination started in my early childhood with my appreciation of my grandmother’s collection of objects mounted in glass display cases.
I would like to think that my work combines a range and depth of ideas with much for the viewer to look at with the inventive and creative use of a humble medium available to anyone.
Liz Valenti
Des RCA
Born London, lives Gloucestershire
I studied fashion design at the Royal College of Art and worked in the fashion industry as a designer in New York and London.
I lectured in fashion design at degree level in a number of London art colleges before moving to Gloucestershire where I was a full time lecturer in Cheltenham on the BA Hons Fashion course and on the Foundation course.
I have been a freelance fashion illustrator, an author of Tassles, Tiebacks and Trimmings, a book on passementerie, and a features writer for Period House Magazine.
In 2012 I founded Sticky Paper Studio.
Drawing on Paper
I love drawing the clothed figure – particularly the fashion figure. I have been greatly influenced by Leon Bakst, Egon Schiele, Picasso and Howard Tangye.
This is a small selection.
