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Valérie ARVALYS in "art4any" magazine

April 2022 issue

FOR HER, “ART IS A VIEW OF THE SOUL”

Text by Jean-Paul d'Arville

- February 2022 -

Impressions and Testimonial

The feeling of a work is sometimes momentary, always personal, individual. The observer's explanations are no less so. However, allow me to share my view here, that of a connoisseur of ancient and contemporary creation who observes artists and particularly appreciates the very particular universe of Valérie Arvalys.

An inner resonance

Through shapes and colors, harmonious lines and superimposed glazes, major lines, guidelines and secondary, underlying movements, Valérie Arvalys not only creates masterful works that bring us back to ourselves, she also suggests another reality to us. She invites us into a universe, a particular space, which we glimpse and visit, a rich domain whose ultimate limits we cannot discern.

We return to ourselves, I say: his art expresses a dimension that attracts us because it seems familiar to us and resonates in us like a forgotten memory; the work of Valérie Arvalys-Autant seems to lift a corner of the veil that has long fallen before us. This work leaves no one without inner reflection. Often one can even appreciate an intimate comfort that is difficult to define.

A singular and rare artistic expression

Contrary to what is agreed in our societies, let's not try to classify this artist too quickly. Like everyone else, conscious heiress or not of the world of yesterday or today, Valérie Arvalys remains herself. Independent and instinctive, spontaneous but thoughtful, it would be too simplistic to find her a few tutelary ancestors or mentors.

By the diversity of his expressions, the freedom of his horizons, the skill and the apparent complexity of his gestures, the varied choice of his materials, the artist always finds something to create, and his multiple sources of inspiration could surprise us. often.

The harmony, the depth that emanates from each of his works, whatever the format, always calls out. Here, there is no attractive recipe, no concession or artificial compromise that would exploit a fashion, a “trend of the times” a thousand times served and revisited by so many others.

Far from the buoyant currents of our time, the artist innovates. She digs her own furrows, sows her own colors, traces her personal work and thus gives us the opening to her authentic, original and sincere world.

Collages, Overlays, Colors and Depth of Field

His work is concretely made up of multiple materials, various stones, wooden elements, multiple objects, pigments and gilding… currently organized and arranged on large wooden panels, the artist uses the material as only it knows how to do. A sensitive harmony, a real grace emerge from the whole thus created because everything is used in the service of her deep inspirations which guide her.

“Art is a view of the soul”

“Art is a vision of the soul” finally sums up Valérie Arvalys. Matter is only a tool, pleasant but superficial particles. The important thing is elsewhere. The observer inevitably feels this. The attentive spectator receives a form of plenitude from it.

Mystery of the creative work, testimony of the true artistic expression, regenerating emotions resulting from a source which seems to exceed us but to welcome us in its warm hearth.