Julien Valery

Julien Valery was born in 1958 in the small village of Coteau and was considered one of the most promising of the younger generation of Haitian artists.  His paintings are anecdotal in subject, depicting such events as joyful weddings, magical ceremonies with mermaids, esoteric voodoo rituals and celebratory feasts.   Both thoughtful and original, his work is also often humorous and startling, with hidden touches that might be missed at first glance.

Sadly, Julien Valery died in July 2001.

[Biographic notes from Haitian Art Company at http://www.haitian-art-co.com/artists/jvalery.html.]

Boat People,  c. 1993 36 x 24 inches,  Acrylic on Canvas,  Framed

According to the vaudou beliefs in which the country has been saturated since the time of slavery, the ocean surrounding Haiti is a mirror, whose surface divides the world of the living from the world of the dead.  The division is not absolute, however, for in vaudou as in the African religions from which it springs the dead do not depart, but remain present and available for communion with the living.  [from Miroir Danjere by Madison Smartt Bell]