American Illustration Competition

My work for the Richland Library Doodle Freely Mural was selected to appear in the upcoming American Illustration 37 annual award hardcover book. From over 8,000 submissions, the jury selected, by a majority vote or better, only 367 images to appear in the book and represent the best illustrations from 2017.

This year’s distinguished jury included: Damien Correll, Google; Jim Datz, The New York Times Op-Ed; Phoebe Flynn Rich, Rachel Ray Everyday; Alison Forner, Simon and Schuster; Na Kim, Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Michael Mrak, Scientific American; and Ivylise Simones, WIRED

The American Illustration 37 winning collection will be presented in print and digital media for maximum visibility. There will be an event for the winner sin New York in November. Count me in!

Richland Library Bookmark Wall Mural

One of the most exciting projects I have worked on was the Richland Library Bookmark Wall located in the newly renovated main branch on Assembly Street on the Garden level. The wall contains almost 2000 hand drawn bookmarks. Half were created by myself while the other half was produced by the community including library patrons and several local schools. The hand drawn bookmarks were collected and scanned by my team of USC design student interns. We assembled them into a 53 x 9 foot collage. Digital color was added and printed on vinyl. The project took over a year to complete start to finish but was worth it. Stop by and check it out.

Richland Library Artist in Residence

I was invited to be the 1st Visual Artist-In-Residence for The Richland Library this past year. This library won an award that ranks them as one of the top 5 libraries in the country. They have spent millions of dollars renovating every single branch and building a few new ones as well. They have pledged 1% of their budget to promoting the the Arts. I love libraries and it was a joy to work there for a year. I am almost finished with a huge mural that will be installed in their new kid and teen area this January 2018. More on that later. But these are just a few pics from my time there in a beautiful studio space.

Burd Brains Exhibition at Richland Library

I had a three month show at the main branch of The Richland Library in their beautiful newly renovated space. This marked the end of my 1 year residency there and it was a wonderful experience.

Doodle Freely Boomark Kit

I illustrated and designed this for the Richland Library Bookmark Art Project.

Richland Lending Library

Check out his new Lending Library Machine I covered in doodles. It will be on Main Street in downtown Columbia. Take a book or leave a book.

Doodle Freely Project Wins AIGA InShow Award

Another year, another InShow cube to add to the collection. The AIGA InShow Awards were held at SOCO this year and it was a great party to celebrate the best design in SC for 2017. A bunch of my students won too!

Valdes at Crafty Feast 2017

It was another fun year at Crafty Feast. This year we went small with only mini canvases and original drawings. As always, we had a great time meeting people and slinging art.

Valdes Art at Crafty Feast

I had a great time meeting tons of people and selling lots of art this year at the always well-run Crafty Feast. The people have spoken and the little canvases are a hit! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello and take home some original art.

AIGA SC InShow Awards

Valdes Art picked up 3 AIGA InShow Awards including a Judges' Best of Show for the Secret Species Project Exhibition. It was a great surprise. The Secret Species children's book also won. Just as nice was seeing my former students winning lots of awards too. The awards are a different form of cube every year. This year they went with the woodsy-outdoor vibe.

Artist-in-Residence at Richland Library 2016-17

Richland Library’s main branch on Assembly is one of my favorite places in Columbia so I am excited to announce I will be their Artist-in-Residence starting today through May.

That means you can check out my work in my new studio space on the newly renovated 2nd floor. There is a whole team of friendly and creative people devoted to helping people make stuff in brand new creative spaces.

Things kick off tonight at 7 with 3 bands, cash bar, and open studios. I’ll be there making something. Starting next week, I’ll have some open studio hours when you can drop by and check out my work or talk about creative stuff.

Rooftops and Sidewalks Exhibition at MyPlasticHeart in NYC

I was thrilled to be invited to contribute a piece to a show curated by Leo Espinosa. Each invited artist was sent either a model water tower or mailbox by BoundlessBrooklyn.com and asked to make an original piece. The show is filled with some of my illustration heroes and my piece ended up next to the work of Calef Brown, one of my favorite artists. I share his work in my illustration classes often. You can see all the pieces and even buy them here. I chose to do a take on the idea of a snail mail mailbox.

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.