Interviews: Karmen Valadez

Karmen Valadez, I.ncarcerates C.hildren E.nthusiastically, 2018, oil on canvas, image size: 28 x 20 in., credit: © Karmen Valadez, courtesy of the artist

Karmen Valadez (b. 1994) is an artist originally from Wayne, Nebraska. In her childhood, she was exposed to artmaking and frequently visited the Joslyn Art Museum. Valadez enrolled at the University of Nebraska Omaha and graduated with two degrees: A degree in General Studies (2016) and a BFA (2018). Heavily borrowing from Pop Art, she portrays political subject matter while criticizing toxic masculinity, racism, xenophobia, and other societal issues. 

I sat down with her at Hardy Coffee Co. on Jones Street and asked her about her upbringing and her work. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Jonathan Orozco: What’s your family and cultural background?

Karmen Valadez: My dad immigrated from Mexico and met my mom in Wakefield, which is super close to Wayne. And then they got married. And my mom, her family is from Germany; Irish. But yeah, my dad is Mexican. His dad is Hispanic, but from Spain. And then his mom is native.

JO: When did you first realize you were interested in making art?

KV: My mom actually started [to] go to school for art when she… but then she coincidentally got pregnant with me in college. So she stopped going to college. I had always drawn with her growing up. I didn’t really get into it until high school actually. I had a really awesome art teacher who recognized my talent and pushed me to do more with it.

Karmen Valadez, Impeach the Peach (detail), 2018, oil on canvas, image size: 16 x 16 in., credit: © Karmen Valadez, courtesy of the artist

JO: Can you tell me about your time at the University of Nebraska Omaha?

KV: I got the Goodrich Scholarship for my first four years of college. I started as an art education major and then I don’t know what really happened. I switched my major to General Studies with a focus in art, sociology, and Spanish. After that, I did the BFA for an extra three semesters.

JO: What year did you graduate?

KV: I graduated with my General Studies degree in May 2016, and then my BFA in December 2018.

JO: In your childhood, did you visit museums and galleries often?

KV: Yeah. We used to go to the Joslyn all the time. My grandma actually worked there a long time ago. I hung out with her a lot. She got to meet Dale Chihuly. 

JO: From your childhood until college, was there any significant event that shaped who you are and what your work is about?

KV: When did it get political is what you mean?

JO: Yeah. I was just going to ask about your BFA, and of course Donald Trump and the way you represent him.

KV: When I started really getting into art in high school, I was focusing on how women are represented, and sort of… what’s the best way to put this? I was sharing my story as a woman… I was still a teenager, so a young girl, who had been assaulted, and how they were conveyed in society and stuff like that, just what I was hearing as a young woman and having shared my story and hearing other women share their story as well, and how they were treated. 

Karmen Valadez, Untitled Doll #1 (detail), 2010, acrylic on canvas, image size: 12 x 16 in., credit: © Karmen Valadez, courtesy of the artist

A lot of my art started that way. It was rag dolls with button eyes in these compromising situations like on a street corner and stuff like that. So that’s sort of where… I wouldn’t call that so much political, but it came off a little bit as political.

JO: How about your senior thesis? How did you start to develop ideas? How did that project come about?

KV: The first piece I made about Donald Trump was in advanced painting with Barb Simcoe, and it was a collage piece where you’re supposed to take an image and then some sort of material you would collage with and put them together. I made Donald Trump with a speech bubble and I collaged Mein Kampf; Hitler’s book. I collaged that in the speech bubble and then added his quotes in there too. And she went crazy over it. She thought it was so cool. That was the first piece I made. That was while he was campaigning to get the Republican seat.

JO: The one where you paint him with the ICE gear is still relevant.

KV: Relevant! Absolutely! I did a lot of pieces about his cabinet as well. Right before I started [my] BFA, I was doing a piece with Trump and all the original people. It was Ben Carson, Betsy DeVos, Sean Spicer, which, he was fun to make fun of! 

Karmen Valadez, Agent Orange, 2018, oil on canvas, image size: 28 x 20 in., credit: © Karmen Valadez, courtesy of the artist

JO: Was this just your thesis, or are you still doing this kind of work? Do you think you’re going to continue to do this since we still have this current administration?

KV: I have done a few pieces. I took a workshop with Amy Haney, just out of her studio and did a piece about him. And I still doodle stuff all the time. After my thesis was over, I stopped watching 24-hour news and sort of separated myself from it because it was really exhausting to keep up with it so much. I loved painting it, but there was a point where it was like: “Bah! [laughs] What the hell is going on!”

I’ll probably always make political art. I think I’m most passionate about political art, so I don’t see me straying from that in any way.

JO: Do you have any upcoming projects?

KV: I have a series of political sketches that I made a while ago with the intention to print them with Amy. I had a lot of family stuff happen over the beginning of the summer, so I haven’t caught up with Amy to continue to do that. But anyway, they’re based off of early horror movie posters with political subject matter in them.

JO: Do you have graduate school in the picture?

KV: I do want to eventually. That was something I contemplated starting right away or waiting for a while, and I think I am going to wait a while just because I want to get a larger portfolio. Even though I am really proud of the work I did for my thesis, I still think I can grow from that before I get into graduate school.

JO: Do you plan on staying in Omaha or have you just not thought about that yet?

KV: I don’t know. I’ve always been in Omaha and I really like Omaha. I think, especially lately, the art community is thriving, but who knows. I would go to other places if opportunities lent themselves that way. 

JO: I’ll leave it at that. Is there anything else you want the readers to know?

KV: I still have shirts and buttons and stuff from my thesis, so if anyone’s interested, hit up my Instagram!

Karmen Valadez, credit: © Karmen Valadez courtesy of the artist

Karmen Valadez currently lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

Her Instagram handle is: @karmenvaladezart.