Episode 2: Telling Stories with Images: Memory and the Quest of History

Vincent Valdez says he began drawing when he was four and "hasn't looked back." We are the happy recipients of his forty-four years of learning to "tell a story through images."

He happily cuts against the grain of contemporary art, he says, and though he didn't start out with the idea of critiquing what Gore Vidal calls "the United States of Amnesia," he can't turn away from what he sees.

Rich in detail, his images wake the viewer from somnambulance. If, three days later, that viewer, still haunted by Valdez's powerful work, looks up more about his subject matter, then Valdez considers he has made a small contribution to ameliorating the "trauma of living in 21st century America."

His efforts are very large indeed, painted with the deft strokes of one who remembers his Mexican-American heritage, all the while proclaiming his "American" voice as well.

Vincent’s website is here.

Photo credits: Ray Santisteban

Vincent’s 2020 PBS American Masters Special: Vincent Valdez: The Beginning is Near, can be found here.