Donnie Valle creates images, but never lets them reach full growth, allowing the painting to become only one part creation, one part erasure. In their airy paintings, gossamer jots of colour appear in otherwise empty fields. Through painting Valle attempts to eerily erase their memory: “It started with a family photograph,” they say, “with correction fluid I began erasing bits, until it became an unrecognisable field with splashes of colour.”
The often bright canvases, laden with moments of appearance and erasure, refer to darker undertones. Themes of loss, tragedy, and despair frequently surface in Donnie Valle’s paintings. Through these works Valle communicates feelings of past events with the external world, evoking the mood and atmosphere of a vanishing dream. Valle recalls a scuffle that inspired one painting: “I gave a friend a bottle of ammonia as birthday gift. The next time I was with him, we got in a bad fight and he threatened to squirt it in my face. I thought about how funny that would be, and that became the next painting.”
Donnie Valle has exhibited in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Germany, among others. Their work is held in public and private collections internationally.