VITO VALDEZ INTERVIEW
• What influenced you to create art specifically in Detroit ?
Detroit is my home town and I grew up on the border by Ste. Anne de Detroit in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge . I went to the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit and had my earliest contacts in the Arts scene there . I left the Center For Creative Studies in the late 80s to live and work full time as an artist in Montreal , Quebec , Canada .
• Do you have a favorite painting or mural that you created?
There are a series of murals that are in the Cobo Hall Garage entitled " Drum"
completed in 1998. I also really like the Cornfield mural on St. Anne and Bagley Street in southwest Detroit . It took several long hours and hard work to complete, but once it was finished I felt a sense of accomplishments. The Cobo Hall Garage Mural project for the City of Detroit, my work on the southwest side of Detroit, co-founding Inner City Voices and Visions, and working at the DIA are some of my most greatest accomplishments.
• How does the community influence your art?
Public Art in the community is for the people living there and visitors who come to that neighborhood. The work is visual language with a positive message for that specific site . Artists should educate the people of the community. Art is the expression of an individual and the group.
• What responsibilities do you think an artist has to his/her community?
To enable the people of that community to learn the value of art and it's message to enhance the urban landscape.
• Has the purpose of art in Detroit always been the same?
Depends on your definition of Art. Is graffiti art ? Was it a vandalized work ? etc. Public art is a mark , a voice , a message .
• Do you have any future plans for murals?
I'm currently doing 2 murals for the Detroit Public Library's S.W. branch .
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