David A ValentineI studied filmmaking at Los Angeles City College; and later in 1977, experimental animation at California Institute of the Arts with film artist, Jules Engel. I dropped out of school to work as an apprentice animation camera operator at Stephen Bosustow Productions, a small Academy Award winning animation studio in Santa Monica, Ca. While I was there I designed and produced a collage animation film on violenceI against women called, "36 Views of Mt. Washington". It won the Golden Eagle Award of the Council of International Non-Theatrical Events (CINE) for experimental animation. The film went on to be shown at festivals around the world; and it resides in the Smithsonian's permanent collection of American independent films. I went on to work as a union animation camera operator for major broadcast animation studios like Hanna-Barbera Productions and Filmations Associates shooting popular Saturday morning cartoons such as, Scooby-Doo, the Smurfs, Bill Cosby and the Cosby Kids and others.
During the middle to late 1980's I wrote comedy and voice acted for an NPR affiliate station in Santa Monica, CA (KCRW FM) on a weekly music and comedy show called, "The Cool and the Crazy". I was also involved in, Allied Visual Artists, a start up computer and video graphics company. I also created a company to produce industrial and educational animation projects using the talents of freelance film artists and designers called, Synthetic Image Research. I also opened my studio to teach evening classes through Los Angeles City College in digital image editing and painting.
In 1989, I took a break from tinsel town and ended up in Toronto, Canada where I spent a year managing an office that sold reference books door to door to local businesses. I hated it and in 1990 returned Stateside to settle in southern Connecticut. In New Haven I began courting a woman who was a former colleague from KCRW FM in Santa Monica She was attending graduate school and we married the following year. I took up studio art making collages with digital images I made in the 80's. My mixed media artworks began to show in local galleries. In 1993, my wife graduated from school and we moved to Washington, DC where I continued to exhibit my computer-aided mixed media paintings. I entered the Corcoran College of Art and Designand received a bachelor's degree in fine art in 1997; the same year our daughter Robyn was born.
We returned to Los Angeles in 2001, bought a house in the West Adams Historic District, and I continued to develop my studio work. From 2003 through 2004, I used a Ford Foundation grant to create a video about Dana Alston, a renowned economic justice activist. The grant also allowed me to travel across the country recording oral histories of prominent environmental justice activists. When the project concluded I became a part time technology and education aide at the Theodore T. Alexander, Jr. Science Center School, my daughter's elementary school. As my interests in arts education grew I participated in seminars that promoted critical thinking and standards based learning of visual arts. My efforts to develop skills as a teaching studio artist took another step forward when I was chosen in 2009 to participate in the Music Center of Los Angeles County's Teaching Artist Apprentice Program (TAAP). I finished the year of study doing a six week artist's residency at the 32nd Street/USC VAPA Magnet School teaching landscape drawing to fourth graders using ideas from the Hudson River School of 19th century American landscapes. To see examples of student outcomes click here
Today, I continue to create ideas that develop through drawings, photography and collage into mixed media images and paintings. To see examples of current image and blog series click, here.
2717 South Raymond Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90007-2125
david.valentine2736@gmail.com
The Corcoran College of Art and Design, BFA Painting 1997
Web 2.0 is a techy phrase for an immersive interactive online application experience that can be accessed through a variety of devices including ntebook computers, tablets and smart phones. Web 2.0 aplications do not require software downloads; are operating system independent (Mac, Windows, Android, Blackberry etc), and they are easy to use. Through two artist's residencies and my professional capacities as technology aides at an elementary and seconday school, I have used web based arts education tools to supplement traditional hands on learning experiences. Here is an example of an online tool from, ed.voicethread.com that promotes real time commentary with keyboard text, cell and landline voice, direct audio recordings or real time doodling on any documents, video or image: Below is an example of a Voicethread module I created to invite commentary on a demonstration lesson I taught at the Music Center of LA County's Education division to staff and colleagues as part of my TAAP certificate requirement (May 2009).
