LISTEN TO HER EYES

a magazine lift and collage project

Listen to Her Eyes, 2015 is a transfer-based project that utilized magazine tears/cut-outs as material for a collage to produce a cyanotype print from a master collage (Figure 1). In this experimental work, Valentino explored old ideas of composition akin to his upbringing—compositions drawn in pencil or ink by members of his community as a youth, who were incarcerated. While serving time they would draw on envelopes to barter for goods, stay occupied, and send letters to their loved ones with that extra lil something. Other times the drawings would be on sheets of paper. Valentino was always fascinated by these skills and talents.

More intimately, he and his late Uncle Richie would sit together and draw on the kitchen table when Valentino was in grade school, at his grandmother’s apartment. Valentino was in student mode with his Uncle Richie during these “watch your nephew” sessions. Fortunately, one such drawing by his Uncle survives (Figure 2). So when the idea to create a transfer-based cyanotype print came to mind, to make a collage out of magazine tears, fashioned in the complexities of societal art, grounded in the Chicano/a experience, was automatic.

Below is a time-lapse video of Valentino’s assemblage process (Figure 3).

Unlike his Uncle Richie’s drawing, the original cyanotype that Valentino made with this composition is lost. Since the original magazine lift remains in partial tack, he was able to scan it and restore the image which in turn was printed on a transparency sheet, in 2021, and a new cyanotype and strokes of red acrylic entered the physical realm (Figure 4). This resurgent iteration is scaled at 13” X 17”, framed with an 18” X 24” gallery wood frame. It was acquired by a private collector while on exhibition at Kaleid Gallery in downtown San Jose’s SoFA District the same year, during a Summer rotation, not long after.

In the Summer of 2023, Valentino produced a second iteration from the master file. This release is a pigment print in color at 22” X 27” and in a custom frame that he built, using scrap wood, and found hardware as fasteners (Figure 5).

Foreseeable releases will be made using other traditional methods of printmaking, i.e., salt and pepper printing, screen printing, and lithography. Each iteration will be a 1/1 edition, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5