Leanna Valente
ONE
BIG
ART HUSTLE Interview by ChrisRWK (Robots Will Kill) Photos by Leanna Valente I met Leanna awhile ago, I believe while I was painting a wall or at an art show. After speaking with her and bonding over our 9-5 jobs and how much we hate how much time they take up we talked about how much it made us appreciate our passion projects. She’s taken photos of some of the best artists out there on top of creating some amazing artwork. Can you tell me a little about what your day job is? My day job is as a senior account manager for a mega-large (too large), industrial supply company. I manage and grow a group of corporate accounts, selling around $2.3 million per year, yet living paycheck to paycheck oddly. I love sales and business in general, it’s in my blood and being responsible for my own day and time at least, the best part. It’s like running your own business but it’s not yours, whatsoever.
What’s your side project? While the day job is my left brain, my side project is from the right side - my lifeblood, which is art, everything art related. It changes depending on what I am working on, whether focusing on my mixed media contemporary art, art blogging, photography of street art and graffiti documentary projects (often for art magazines), curating, doing books/zines, or whatever else, it’s all related as one big “art hustle.” Currently, I have a collage, mixed media series that I have been working on, evolving since 2008 and it is all fashion based. Well, most of my art is fashion based entitled “Changing The Art of Fashion” as I manipulate the covers and pages of fashions magazines from the glamour to grit, the way I see it. Or the way me as an artist sees it. Also related is an interactive curated book/ zine project called “Style Black Book.” Here, various top graffiti, street and contemporary artists do their thing on the cover of fashion magazines – thus “changing the art of fashion.” The first book had 68 pages; the second with 124 and the third will begin curation soon. 29
