“ The aim of my work is to make your sun shine and your dreams glow. I would like to open your spirits toward tolerance and let the harmony of life come through. All events, all experiences are material for learning. For me, encounters between humans and nature are the core of life. The aforementioned experiences permit me to feed my soul and move forward spiritually and artistically. Thank you.” Vally

REFERENCES :
The book : "La bible de l'art singulier" , édition 2007, lelivredart, collection artension
Catalog : "Vally Saunier", édition 2007, lelivredart
http://www.artrinet.com
http://www.artension.fr
http://www.decouverte-artistes.com
http://www.artsingulier-lesite.com
http://www.yourbox.fr
http://www.art-insolite.com
http://www.a-comme-artiste.fr

TELEVISION :
France 3 Normandie, Label Normandy emission, 29.10.07

Vally Saunier was born in France in 1973. She has been painting since she was four years old. She carried out her studies in Amiens and Paris. In Paris, she obtained her DEA (masters degree) in Aesthetic Technologies and Artistic Creation. In 1999, she devised and produced a video entitled “Andros" and created “The cabinet anatomique" performance. She then worked with multimedia technologies at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research). Afterwards, she taught drawing and painting to students of cultural organization in Paris. In 2002, she made various African masks for street shows using stilts, the shows were broadcast throughout France. Today, one can find Vally’s paintings in the private collections of individuals residing in France, Spain, Finland, Switzerland, The United States and Canada.
Her paintings disclose the different stages of an intimate journey which originates in the core of the body and finishes in the spirit. She mainly paints in acrylic with wooden frames. She also uses oil pastels, ink and water colors to play with color and form. Raw materials such as jute, raffia and cowry shells, which Vally brings back from her travels, have also found their place in her paintings. Vally possesses a traveler’s soul, has an untamed spirit and unlimited generosity as well as an insatiable curiosity. Her work is an open door to other worlds, be they mineral, animal, human or spiritual. Vally paints tolerance and the harmony of life while searching for the purity characteristic of primitive art.


“ Inner Bodies”
Since 1993, Vally has studied the external/internal relationship of the body. Following her father’s hemiplegia when she was a teenager, she searched for physical manifestations of feelings experienced in the innermost depths of the body. She uses different materials such as canvas, wood, x-rays and card board. She works these various substances with the goal of sculpting the images as the flesh is sculpted on the human body. Her x-rays come mainly from her circle of friends and family. However, she has also received x-rays in response to an ad placed in the local newspaper.

“Mask –Like Faces”
In conjunction with her work on the human body, the masks appeared. The masks were divided into two parts to reflect the symmetry – or lack thereof- in the human body. Later, Vally discovered the Nouba population of Sudan and their age-old tradition of body and face painting. She was fascinated by men with painted faces. At the same time, she studied the sculpted masks. 'Mask-like faces and masked faces' progressively appeared in her work. Vally played with the lines of the mask which underline and modify the face. In 1999, Vally’s painting underwent a transformation and revealed a new dynamic. Her eyes were opened widely to the outer world. The evolution of her work coincided with a series of trips to the African continent. Her painting was nourished by new impressions gathered under the light of the Moroccan and Tunisian deserts. Vally believes opening oneself to other cultures enriches and calms the human soul.

“Red, black, gold”
For Vally, tradition is at the heart of African and Asian cultures. As a result, she had to search for particular forms. She symbolized the traditional sources found in these cultures by refining the features. She carried out research which inspired her to reduce the number of colors in her paintings to three: red, black and gold. In 2001, she made a trip to Mali where she discovered African ideograms and became interested in graphics and cloth motifs.

“ African Women”
Vally’s interest in West African art and history continued to deepen. Her inspiration came from scenes of daily life: traditional objects as well as her encounters with various ethnic groups, such as the Touareg, Peuls, Bambara, Dogon, and Boso. As the result of powerful personal connections she made with women during her travels, the African women became an essential symbol in many paintings. Imbued with the cultural diversity of Africa, she altered her research techniques.

“Angels”
In January 2004, Vally’s health was very poor. Thus, her painting evolved toward her imaginary world sprinkled with angels and goddesses. Her painting are an opening to the mineral, vegetable, animal, human and spiritual worlds, which enrich her daily life in many ways.

“Spiritual World”
The richness of Vally’s artistic universe resides in her opening toward all sorts of worlds be they mineral, vegetable, animal, human or spiritual. The generosity and eclecticism of these universes is a true representation of her artistic path. Vally promotes a message of tolerance, brotherhood and harmony. Her paintings plunge us into human nature as well as Mother Nature to unite them in the spiritual dimension. The spirit world constitutes a new source of inspiration and a new journey for this artist. Vally’s work is in constant evolution and is fed by her experiences. At this moment, her explorations of the relationship between the aesthetic and the spiritual have inspired her to turn her gaze toward Asia, a continent of the philosophy of the spirit.