Art Preview: Robin Valle Words: 606
Maldonado
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Summer fun may have come to an end, and although most of us are feeling down, a little inspiration to get you through your day can be found closer than you’d expect. The works of Robin Valle, a former art instructor at ECC, are being showcased in the art gallery August 31-September 25.
Collections from her student days at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in the ’70s to some of her latest works are displayed in a way to celebrate this beautiful and unique artist. Valle, who passed away suddenly this past June, lives on through her art. The show “From Darkroom To Digital” showcases just that. Black and white photographs to colorful, intricately layered patterns, command the gallery walls.
It isn’t surprising that she, along with fellow art instructor, Joyce Dalal, contributed largely to the ECC art department’s merge towards digital art. As one of the first local photographers to explore digital media, she was crucial to the development of the Digital Arts Program.
Before computers became commonplace, Valle’s techniques show a digital influence. “Her work was always inventive”, said ECC art curator, Susanna Meiers. Early black and white photography, such as her self portrait, has hints of color within the photograph. An effect that can easily be done now with a few mouse clicks on Adobe Photoshop, required a long process of rubbing dye into the actual photograph in the ’70s.
“She followed her own thread,” Meiers said, “She didn’t latch onto topical things that were popular. She would pick the things that really applied to her life at that moment.”
Her methods of illustrating were just as unique as the topics themselves. Photographs of the violent Chinese protest at Tiananmen Square in 1989 where military response murdered protestors in large numbers included photographing images from her television screen.
“Crime Stats/ Hollywood” was a theme she dedicated to the gang violence around her neighborhood in the early ’90s. With washed out gang members as the focal point,

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and graffiti as well as mapped out grids of Los Angeles as the backdrop, Valle’s layering, collage-like technique is continued on and more developed.
“There is a fanciful, imaginary quality of her work,” said Meiers. From her quirky pieces of birds, zebras, and even dinosaurs enveloped in patterned, colorful, designs to her more serious themed feminist pieces, her eclectic, colorful style breaks through.
“Expectations” illustrates women’s ability to “look good and produce children.” A bright human embryo steals your attention dead center, with a “June Cleaver” type 1950’s woman smirking at you from either side of it. A mustard yellow backdrop, brings the entire piece together illustrating society’s views of women as well as her playfulness as an artist.
“Robin was terribly funny and had a laugh that would just set people off,” Meiers said. The art curator designed a section of the gallery similar to Valle’s apartment. A bright pink shelf, which Meiers explained, was the same color of her apartment with little knick knacks that adorned her actual apartment and photographs of her are on display. All to give the public a taste of the exuberant life that was Robin Valle.
The eclectic artist leaves behind a legacy of artwork. Not all of which was even able to fit in the gallery. Her innovative, pre-digital, pre-computer art work of the ’70s and ’80s to her visual feast of her rendition of a kaleidoscope to be viewed on screen are an inspiration to everyone to be true to yourself and do what you want. Not just what is popular or what others expect of you.

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