Nancy X. Valentine stood on Lincoln Street in downtown Fergus Falls. She looked up at the windows on the second and third floor of a large brick building. She held her hands up to her face to shield out the sun and peered in the windows of the artists galleries on the first floor. Sculptures filled the room and paintings covered the walls. This could be her new home.
Valentine’s previous apartment had been burglarized. The apartment building, Kaddatz Artist Lofts, was for artists and it was safe. Valentine says there was a slight problem, “In order to move in, I had to dedicate my life to creating every day.” Valentine dove in.
A 2013 UMD grad, Valentine was up for the challenge. It was a pivotal moment for her. In Duluth she had surrounded herself with creative activities: she had an evening show on KUMD-FM’s student run program The Basement, she volunteered for the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and HomeGrown Music Festival. “I’ve always been someone who enjoys creating.”
In the six years since Valentine committed to the Artist Lofts, she has created an impressive list of artistic accomplishments. She has exhibited her artwork and has given talks about her work. “What really lights me up is when I am invited to give artists' lectures and can share stories with other folks,” says Valentine. “There is magic in the moments shared between me and the audience.”
Her journey began with watercolor but “it’s shifted to what I do now, watercolor and Chinese ink,” says Valentine. She’s held seven solo exhibits of her work between 2018 and 2022. She has also been featured in fourteen two-person and group exhibits between 2017 and 2022.
In May 2021, a non-profit called Springboard for the Arts helped fund a new project by Valentine. The Audacity to be Asian in Rural America: we owe you no apologies. It was exhibited at six venues across Minnesota, including the UMD library.
Valentine’s Audacity series was created in response to the injustice faced by Asian Americans since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In it, Valentine features the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. She recognized that the Chinese Zodiac was familiar to most Americans. Valentine says, “it is meant to express that Asian people do not owe anyone an apology for simply existing. It’s about cultural dignity." The entire series was made for her mother to honor her family's stories and share them with the world.
Her favorite piece is “Tiger Mom,” which she calls a love letter to her mother. It features a tiger and two round baby shoes. “There is beauty in the ferocity of motherhood,” says Valentine. “My mother’s ferocity was a form of over-protectiveness born out of a survival mentality. She did everything she could to give her children the best life possible.”
Inspiration from UMD and Beyond
Valentine graduated from UMD with a major in communication and a minor in professional writing. Her time spent in and out of class while attending UMD exposed her to a more diverse population than her hometown, resulting in a desire to understand and appreciate her Chinese background.
A course, intercultural communication, taught by Professors Mike Sunnafrank and Ryan Goei, “helped me see my culture as valuable and beautiful,” she says. “It changed my life and it allowed for deeper cross-cultural relationships to form.”
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Banner Photo (above): Nancy Valentine (right), her mother, and her grandmother (center).
This story was written by UMD student Paris Vang, who is majoring in marketing and minoring in professional writing. Paris works with Cheryl Reitan in University Marketing and Public Relations.