Valerie Carrigan works out of her studio in a historic mill in western Massachusetts where she produces drawings, artist books, and prints, specifically monotype, pochoir, and letterpress. Her work explores the intersection of the natural world and the human spirit, and has been exhibited at the International CODEX Book Arts Fair and Symposium, San Francisco Public Library, Boston Athenaeum, Minnesota Center for the Book, and the Women’s Studio Workshop Art Book Fair, among others.
Carrigan is a recent recipient of the College Book Art Association Member Support Grant (2023) and Martha Boschen Porter Fund Award of the Berkshire Taconic Foundation (2021). She was selected to paint a mural in downtown North Adams, MA (2021) funded through a Cultural District Initiative Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Residencies include Maine Media Workshops + College, Penland School of Craft, Vermont Studio Center, Zea Mays Printmaking, In Cahoots, and Directangle Press. Her artist books are held in special collections across the United States with recent acquisitions by Baylor University, Colorado State University, and Washington University at St. Louis.
Carrigan holds an M.F.A. in Printmaking/Book Arts from the University of the Arts. She is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Bryant University where she is the Program Coordinator for the Arts and Creative Industries major.
She lives in a 120-year-old house with her family and two cats - Merlin and Gwenivere.
Email: carriganv@gmail.com
COLLECTIONS
Smithsonian Libraries
Smith College
Colorado State University
Swarthmore College
Baylor University
Colby College
Carleton College
The University of Vermont
Cleveland Institute of Art
Washington University at St. Louis
Savannah College of Art and Design
George Mason University
Bryant University
Trinity College
University of Houston
Philadelphia Free Library
The University of Denver
Dartmouth College Zine Collection
The University of Wisconsin - Madison
The University of Nebraska - Lincoln
The Southern Graphics Print Archive
Rutgers University
The University of the Arts
The Amity Art Foundation
College Book Arts Association Archives
Pringle Gallery Private Collection
Spencer Timm Private Collection
Cig Harvey Private Collection
Jarvis Rockwell Private Collection
STATEMENT
My artistic work stems from the act of paying attention. It explores the intersection of the natural world and the human spirit by merging drawing, painting, and printmaking with the contemporary form of the artist book. My imagery rises from moments of wonder - things encountered unexpectedly against a backdrop of the common and everyday. When I walk the woods or the river’s edge, I notice the call of an owl, the release of seeds from a milkweed pod, the opening and closing of a flower in response to the light. Sublime moments like these find their way into my work, often coupled with historic or scientific research, literature, and my own poetry. Philip Fisher, in his book Wonder, the Rainbow and the Aesthetics of Rare Experiences, describes wonder as “that which stops us in our tracks.” I believe that when we observe and recognize a flower, an animal, a landscape - we develop a greater sense of urgency to protect it.
I marked time during quarantine not by using a calendar, but by charting and painting the first blossom of each plant and flowering tree within one hundred feet of my house. Checking numerous times a day for the opening buds, I sketched, photographed and mapped out visual timelines of these moments. Observations quickly filled the pages of my sketchbooks, awaiting creative translation.