About

Anna Valentina is an Oregon based artist whose work explores nature, the human form, abstract structures, and the complexities of the human psyche with vivid color and deep emotion. She grew up painting and drawing, with parents who supported her passions and provided an environment that supported her sensitivity and cultivated her creativity and deep connection to her inner world.

Anna grew up going to a Serbian Orthodox Church where she was immersed in symbols, iconography, incense, candlelight and rich textiles. The icons on every wall depicted saints and biblical figures and often their stories, illustrating suffering, confrontation, revelation, ascension, and miracles. Being born into this vivid visual atmosphere activated her senses and infused her creative imagination with color, form, and art as a form of storytelling.

She grew up in the 90's, with limited TV and lots of time spent outdoors. Nature has always been a focal point of awe and obsession, especially with flowers, shells, bones, feathers, and wood. She is and always has been endlessly devoted and enthralled by all things beautiful, both in the natural world and in all other realms that exist.

Around age 16 she started taking art classes at the local community collage where she fell in love with figure drawing. Even though she grew up in a hyper religious home, her passion for nudity in art was accepted and humored. To Anna, the human body is one of the most beautiful things that exists. Within the body is held our entire reality, our ability to create or destroy, and the temporary home to our spirit, as well as a highly technical and mysterious machine and animal all at once.

Anna is also passionate about fashion, jewelry, dance, architecture, photography, interior design, music, and sculpture, and all of this inspires her work and nourishes her creativity. She defines herself not only as a visual artist but as an all around creative, believing that how we dress, adorn ourselves, eat, and see the world makes us just as creative as making a painting or drawing.