Two of a Kind
Artists with different backgrounds but similar concerns featured together in Pomona Arts Colony exhibit
Inland Empire Calendar
By Susan McCormack, Staff Writer
February 2001
Excerpt
Vallejo also focuses on her love for nature. She is inspired by Native American traditions in California, South Dakota, Arizona and the connection between nature and personal healing and expression.
Vallejo’s work has been seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Armand Hammer Museum, the Laguna Art Museum and more.
Vallejo said for the first time in years her show at SCA, called “Mother Earth/Father Sky,” combines both her paintings and sculptures. Much of her work incorporates natural objects, such as tree branches.
“I went around Los Angeles in the ‘80s and collected tree fragments from the streets…The whole idea in essence was to rescue them and give them rightful places,” she said. “To bring nature within, not only within a (gallery) space but within the mind and psyche.”
Vallejo said many of her paintings take at least one year to create because they have more than 100 layers of paint. She said similar to the themes of her work, her approach to working is very much intuitive. She waited two months to complete one piece as she debated what to do with it.
“I’m not working from photos, I’m using intuitive memory. The paintings are done when I feel like it. That’s all I go by. In the context of working with ceremony and working with nature, one can sit and stare at the sky for hours,” she said.
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