Bio
About Valentine’s work
Reverend Talia Lilith Rose Freyja Valentine-Smith is an artist from a small town outside Spokane, Washington. Growing up there, she often felt isolated and alone, which caused her to turn to video games and T.V.
Soon after she turned 18, she started to realize that she was queer. She came out to close friends and soon after, she came out as trans to her school and started living authentically. Living as an open and out trans woman, she moved to Pullman, Washington to study art and business at Washington State University.
The lived experience of trying to be herself comes out in her art. This can come out in anger, such as in work like Playboy or in fear, such as in Jane. Her work often exists as a place for her to express and reflect on her emotions
I’m often afraid that people will reject me if they see who I am. There are lots of things about myself that I’m ashamed of, and because of this I think other people will have the same reaction to them that I do. Because of this I often hide behind metaphorical masks, collections of little lies I make for myself. Small things, like that I don’t love my friends (I do), I am strong and masculine (I’m not most of the time) and that I’m not ashamed of my body (I am). I have hidden my true self so well that even I don’t know her.
My art is no different. I will hide messages in my art about how I really feel and how I really am, but I won’t leave anything there for people to pick up on them. Deeply personal pieces like Jane or Boyfriend are my screams for help, for comfort, but I will never let them ring out. Other pieces like Lavender Menace exist to lie about who I am. They let me put on the mask that says I don’t take anyone’s shit, even when it often cuts me deeply. Whatever the reason, each piece is a reflection of me sometimes masked, sometimes not. I’m too scared to share what they really mean because I’m often ashamed of myself. But letting things I’m ashamed of hang in front of everyone as if to show them is somehow cathartic to me.
Strangely, my pieces often start very lighthearted, often sometimes coming from concepts I see as jokes. I’ll think something like “wouldn’t it be funny if I make a piece that just has a penis and breasts?” This line of thinking gets me so far in the process. When starting with what’s personally funny or outrageous, you don’t get caught up in what art ‘should’ be, instead you focus only on what you want to do. The joke will often then ‘mask’ the real feeling behind the piece, however it doesn’t always. Pieces like Boyfriend and Playboy have just been as they are.
Another large part of my art is my emotions. Often I’ll make art straight from what I’m feeling, and this can create some of my favorite and least favorite pieces. This process will be enjoyable for me, as it lets me get my feelings out in a non-destructive way, however often I will have to hide behind the masks I create so that no one can actually know how I’m feeling or saying about some event. The piece Useless Wind is a good example of this. This piece was made when I was feeling stuck and in a repetitive place, so I used that to make the piece about repetition and the people who’ve influenced me and it turned into something I’m very proud of, as well as helped me through it.