east washington life
Luis Peralta Del Valle Ambassador of Peace, Hope and Love
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by Phil Hutinet
hen DC Mayor Muriel Bowser visited Beijing in 2016, she presented Mayor Guo Jinlong with a work of art as a token of peace and renewed friendship between Beijing and its Sister City of Washington, DC. Titled “Geared Up Panda,” the life-sized statue of a panda, the symbol of China, was painted by DC’s Luis Peralta Del Valle, a well-known muralist and portraitist who lives in Anacostia. Del Valle depicted the statue of the panda as a mechanical figure with its insides partially showing, exposing mechanical gears like the ones found in a watch. This machinery symbolizes the complex relationship between Washington and Beijing. While Del Valle’s success as a mid-career artist is evidenced by the number of works which now reside in prominent collections on three continents, the artist’s life began rather precariously. As a child, the artist fled violence in his homeland only to find more of it in his adopted city of Washington, DC.
The Journey
At the age of five, Del Valle’s family made the painful decision to leave their home, friends and extended family, including Del Valle’s beloved grandmother, in Nicaragua. It was 1985 and the contra war raged mercilessly, ensnaring civilians in its bloody conflict. We Are One, artist Luis Del Valle.
John Lewis, Good Trouble
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E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m
Searching for a better life for their children, his parents temporarily relocated to Honduras but found that conditions there did not offer them much hope. After a three month journey by bus from Central America to Texas, the family then spent five weeks in a refugee camp in Houston. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Washington, DC and settled at 1315 Park Road NW in Columbia Heights. While Del Valle and his family escaped a civil war in Nicaragua, they arrived in DC just as the crack epidemic and crime wave swept through the city. Del Valle recalls stepping over drug-addicts passed out in his apartment building as a child. As he grew into adolescence, many of his peers succumbed to the temptation of selling drugs for quick cash. Fierce battles for turf ensued and many of his classmates went to jail or lost their lives during the 1990s drug wars. During this time, Del Valle turned to that which he loved most—drawing. He had created art for as long as he could remember. Around the age of 13, he developed a knack for street art and, over the next
three years, he began to explore the medium in DC and its suburbs.
From Graffiti to his First Commission
As he developed his skills as a graffiti artist, Del Valle looked to the old masters to perfect his work. Specifically, he looked at the portraiture of Renaissance painters like Rubens and Michelangelo. As he explains it, “If you master portraiture, everything else will follow.” He also found guidance in Picasso’s realism and, in contrast, Salvador Dali’s surrealist compositions. He also understood that, by studying the processes established by great painters, “You can transfer these techniques to graffiti and to other works.” Del Valle’s big break came at age 16 when he received a commission to paint a mural for a local business, offering him a more lawful way for producing large-scale work. This turning point led him to consider the possibility of making art for a living.
