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BIO

Paula Valenzuela is a visual artist and psychotherapist from Chile, who has lived in the Bay Area since 2013. She has always combined her passion for art and psychology.  At an early age she was interested in art, studying with some Chilean artists since she was 15 years old, and participating in group exhibitions and private collections in her home country. She pursued a professional career in Clinical Psychology and Public Health at UC Berkeley, while keeping her art as a more private passion. She moved to the Bay Area in 2001, and was involved in the effervescent art Mission District community, learning printmaking and creating public commissions for the University of California, San Francisco’s new development, the Mission Bay District.

After many years in the clinical practice in Chile, Paula returned to the U.S with the willing to combine her interests in psychology, mindfulness, and healing arts. She

Paula’s work process is experiential and exploratory, inspired by the colors and textures of the desert from her home country, resulting in a combination of mineral images directly related to patterns found throughout the natural world. She uses mixed media, collage, pouring mediums and acrylics that allow her a flowing movement until she get to a place with each piece that reflects a moment in time, the unexpected. 

Paula’s studio is located in the Industrial Center Building in Sausalito, CA. Her work has been exhibited in the United States and Santiago, Chile.

To know more about Paula’s work, read this interview for the Piedmont Exedra here .

If you want to know more about my story on how I became an artist, these are two interviews with both artists and mentors, Nicholas Wilton and Cheryl Taves.

“ Paula shares how she has learned that risk taking is necessary for making art and for allowing herself to grow. She tells us that it is never as difficult as we imagined it might be – that stepping out of our comfort zone can be exciting and bring us wonderful opportunities”. (Cheryl Taves)

ART STATEMENT

My artwork explores the connection of darkness and light within us, the complexity of layers that we show to others and to ourselves. Covering and uncovering, scratching to unveil the essence.

As an artist by passion and psychologist by training, I am interested in exploring the unconscious and human process that we all go through when embraced in an act of spontaneous creativity, without preconceived ideas. Painting for me is a way to be open to the moment, to be fully present in my body and mind.  

My work process is exploratory, always venturing into unknown territory, utilizing multiple materials and textures. I work with pouring mediums, fluid acrylics, resins and pigments that allow me a flowing movement and to be surprised every time.

I work through several paintings at once, mixing, dripping, scratching painting, covering, uncovering, brushing and scratching again… until I get to a place with each piece that reflects a moment in time, the unexpected.

The colors and textures of the desert inspire me and remind me of my home country, Chile, connecting me to my origins. The combination of natural and mineral colors result in images seem directly related to patterns found throughout the natural world, rather microscopic or aerial.