Refresh Charleston

I was invited to talk about my work back home at Refresh Charleston. To make it even more familiar and fun the event was held at Blue Ion who are old friends. I spoke about my fine art and Secret Species Project. I talked to some old and new friends afterwards and caught up with a couple of my talented former students.

Valdes Miami University Exhibition in Oxford, Ohio

I was honored to be invited by Dr. Stephanie Danker and Miami University to come to Ohio as a Visiting Artist. This included a solo exhibition and 3 action packed days of talking to students, conducting a workshop, and presenting an artist talk. Everyone was super nice and Miami has a beautiful campus. I've post some more images in my exhibition section. Thanks again to all the great people of Miami.

Dr. Danker conducted several of her classes in the gallery so I could talk to students about my work. Students gave really innovative ways they could use my creative process in art education.

I met and worked with students in Art Education, Business, Marketing, and Graphic Design.

I led a workshop in character design featuring my own Secret Species as our muse.

The students made me feel really comfortable and asked lots of great questions. Several of them won Secret Species swag designed for the exhibition.

Valdes Art at the Indie Craft Parade September 2015

I had an amazing time at The Indie Craft Parade in Greenville, SC. There were over 7000 people in attendance and 50 diverse artists. Find out more about the event at Indie Craft Parade website.

Valdes Art At The South Carolina State Museum Children's Room

I was asked to create a large piece for the South Carolina State Museum. The piece features various SC animals and is hanging in the children's play area.

Valdes Art for Sale at Crafty Feast on December 14!

I will selling a whole bunch of new and original paintings at Crafty Feast, December 14 at the Columbia Convention Center. I'll have art priced $10-$150, lowest prices of the year. The event is always a really fun time with tons of cool artists selling perfect holiday presents. They have a DJ and food for a very small cover charge to get in. There are craft stations for kids and I really hope they have Unicorn Poop cookies again. Come find me.

Marius Valdes at Pecha Kucha Night Columbia, SC

I will giving a talk as part of Pecha Kucha on December 12, 2014 at SOCO in Columbia, SC. Other great speakers will be there and it's always a fun night. Speakers show 2o slides and talk for 20 seconds about each slide. I'm not sure what I am going to speak about yet but it will probably involve illustration, design, art or education. Here's the website for more details and tickets. http://soco-work.com/pechakucha/

New Valdes Art Poster Available

This poster was printed to commemorate the exhibition at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen. The 18x24 inch poster is a 2 color silkscreen on sturdy 100 pound Cougar paper. The poster was designed and illustrated by Marius Valdes and printed by The Half and Half. Only 50 were printed. The poster is a standard size so you can pop it into a store bought frame in 10 seconds!

The posters are 25 dollars which includes shipping in the USA. You can get one here.

New Exhibition at the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen in Virginia

I will have an exhibition of 10 new paintings and 20 ink drawings at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen in Virginia. The show will run from August 21 to September 30, 2014.

The Valdes Art Etsy Store is Now Open

I will be posting all original art for sale on Etsy. I just posted 20 new paintings, each only $100. I will be working out the Etsy store in the coming weeks so thanks for your patience in advance if any glitches arise.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValdesArt?ref=s2-header-shopname

2014 Edventure Children's Museum Mini Maker Mural

I was invited to paint a small mural at the Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia, SC. The event hosted all sorts of artists, engineers, and creative problem solvers. I asked for suggestions of what to paint and the word "space" was thrown around which I interpreted as aliens stooping for a photo op with a cow before they abducted it.

Thanks to Jay and Laura at Edventure for taking good care of me and getting me there for a really fun day. It was nice to meet people interested in my work and to get some new art out in Columbia.

View fullsize

Click on image below to see a gallery of the process.

2014 chART Mural Project

I was invited by the chART organization to paint a mural in Charleston, SC this past weekend as part of one of their great events celebrating public art. I was originally going to paint just one mural over 2 days but once i got the hang of it, I worked pretty quickly and finished one in a day. Geoff Richardson, the leader of the event, offered another space to paint the next day.

It was fun working on a new surface and at a large scale. I brought headphones to listen to music but found it better to listen to the sounds of the hustle and bustle of the area.  That was an unexpected perk of working outside in a public space. I had lots of people stop and ask questions and some old friends and students came by to say hello.

You can read more about chART here.

THE ZOO HAS CLOSED.

If you went to ZooValdes.com to buy some art you will have noticed it is now closed. I ran Zoo Valdes from 2007-2013 with much success creating animal-based art and design. After working with a new friend and partner, Barry Wheeler, to make the site more of an online shop in 2012, I just felt that it was time to simplify and get back to using just my last name. I will be selling original art and working with commercial clients just as before only I am tweeking things behind the scenes in terms of my business. I will relaunch an online store in the summer of 2014. Thanks to all who supported the "Zoo"!

ZOO VALDES ON DESIGN RECHARGE SPREECAST

Zoo Valdes will be interviewed in a live 1 hour spreecast for Design Recharge by Diane Gibbs on Wednesday, September 26 at 2:30 PM. You can join in on the conversation and ask questions in real time by going to the link below.

ZOO VALDES NAMED MERIT WINNER IN HOW PROMOTION DESIGN AWARDS

Project selected as one of 78 winning designs from top agencies. The Secret Species project, a project developed by Zoo Valdes, was chosen as a Merit winner in the most recent HOW Promotion Design Awards. This highly selective and well-regarded competition sponsored by HOW magazine recognizes outstanding creative work produced by individuals and creative agencies from around the world.

HOW’s editorial and design team evaluated nearly 1,000 entries and selected winning projects that demonstrated an ideal mix of concept, strategy and execution. Entries were judged by type of work (i.e., Designer Promotions, Client Promotions, Personal Promotions) and also by how effectively the design achieved the stated business goals.

All Merit winners will be featured in the September 2012 issue of HOW magazine and will be spotlighted on HOWdesign.com.

About HOW HOW magazine (HOWdesign.com) is the leading business and creativity magazine for graphic designers, whether they work in solo practices, design firms, advertising agencies or in-house groups. HOW sponsors seven design competitions and hosts the largest annual gathering of graphic designers in the U.S., HOW Design Live, in addition to the HOW Interactive Design Conference and the Mind Your Own Business Conference.   

ZOO VALDES IN RUSSIAN BEATLES ART EXHIBITION

One of my old paintings has been invited to be in an exhibition in Russia timed to take place during a visit from Paul McCartney.

The exhibition "Beatles Art" will take place in Yekaterinburg from the 17th of June till the 17th of July and coincides with the anniversary of Paul McCartney.

ZOO VALDES IN HOW MAGAZINE'S APRIL CREATIVITY ISSUE

Zoo Valdes' Secret Species project is featured in an excellent 3 page article in HOW Magazine. I have been reading this magazine since the late 90's so it was a very special personal accomplishments.

ZOO VALDES TYPEFACE IN NEW TYPOGRAPHY BOOK

The poster below will be featured in the upcoming typography book Mastering Type: The Essential Guide to Typography for Print and Web Design (formerly known as Letter, Word, Sentence, Paragraph) written by Denise Bosler and published by HOW books. The poster was selected for the use of it's typeface created by Zoo Valdes and Bob Werz at Sketchbook B, which has the font available for free download.

ZOO VALDES IN PICTOPLASMA MISSING LINK EXHIBITION IN PARIS

Zoo Valdes has been selected to be part of the Pictoplasma Missing Link Installation at an upcoming exhibition at the new museum la Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, taking place from December 7 – 31. A massive wall in the central exhibition hall will present 500 of the very best entries as unique digital prints.

The Missing Link research project, organized by Pictoplasma, have accidentally unleashed a true avalanche of hairy creatures: More than 5000+ entries from all around the globe have been submitted, with sightings occurring in South Africa, the Iran, Bogota, Korea, Russia, North Carolina, New Zealand, and everywhere in between... More information here: http://www.gaite-lyrique.net / http://paris.pictoplasma.com