the Mona Lisa Project
Valérie Chaussonnet
Valérie Chaussonnet was born in Paris in 1960, and grew up there and in Provence. She studied Literature, Russian, and Anthropology in Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, Paris, Kiev, Berkeley, and Quebec, and at age 24 traveled for 14 weeks to the Canadian Arctic with Arctic and Inuit art experts Prof. Nelson Graburn and Dr. Molly Lee, and Inuit symbolism expert Prof. Bernard Saladin d’Anglure.
Valérie worked for 10 years at the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center, on the team of the major joint Russian-American touring exhibition “Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Alaska and Siberia”, and curated a scaled-down version of it for lighter travel. The project took her to European Russia, Alaska and Siberia, and their museums whose storage rooms were full of the most extraordinary Native art. She simultaneously studied Sculpture and Art Furniture at the Corcoran Art School in D.C. under Bert and Somsri Schmutzhart and Rick Wall, and learned welding under Baltimore artist Donna Reinsel. She co-founded an artists collective called the “Washington Heavy School,” which included Donna Reinsel, her husband Norman Dorsett, and several other artists/architects.
In 1997, after the birth of her two sons, Valérie moved to Austin. She started painting with Brigitte Edery in 2000. Two years ago she resumed metal work. She attended classes at the metal department at Austin Community College, happily studying Art Metals under Trent Temple, and currently studying Metal Smithing under Troy DeFrates.
© Rino Pizzi 2010
