Valentino

Hi there! Shaney here.

I have always felt foreign…born into the wrong family, moved to a foreign land, the Netherlands, to grow up, then returned to the US for my senior year of high school…definitely a stranger in a strange land.

I set making art aside to pursue a sensible career as a psychotherapist. Ultimately realizing that a huge part of me was missing and nothing made sense. Recognizing that loss, I made my way back to painting and haven’t again put my brushes down. Creating allows me to reflect on, express feelings about, and ultimately find delight in all the messy beauty I experience in life all around and within me.

Influenced by nature, I delight in creating abstract-realism animal portraits. Within the layers of my paintings one can spy pencil, acrylics, gold leaf, and oil paint. 

Through personification, I aim to capture raw and honest human emotions, generally my own. Hopeful to then connect with a viewer about their own emotions and experiences on a deeper level with an air of playful curiosity.