The Story Behind the art:
Picture to the left: Lansing Community College (LCC) held a competition in early 2007 to select a piece of art to commemorate its 50th Anniversary. Nicolas Valadez Sanchez was the 1st place winner with his piece entitled “The Spaces Between Locks and Keys”. The piece is 6’ x 3’ and oil on masonite board.
Nicholas said, “The painting shows a LCC student painting her future self as successful. She wears an LCC t-shirt bearing the college logo ‘Where success begins’ as she paints focused on her goals pictured in a field of flowers. She paints herself in business attire and she’s placed herself in a faint suggestion of a busy city, which is used to symbolize future growth and success. The beauty of recognizing success, creating opportunity, and embracing possibility is not the recognition we get from hard work, nor the money we get spend on life’s toys, but rather on not knowing what the undefined place in time, has in store for us- where will meets destiny. This is why the successful figure is not yet finished, because it is not yet defined.”
Picture above: Nicholas said: “About 5 or 6 years ago, a friend and I were going to Grand Ledge, MI to take pictures along The Ledges. As we pulled up to the parking area, to our surprise, we noticed what seemed to be a small traveling circus getting ready and setting up for later that night. Well, I love animals so of course I took advantage of the opportunity to get up close to take pictures of them. We didn’t see anyone around, so we were able to get really close. They had a few awesome elephants with them enclosed in an area by an electric fence. I was an awe to be that close to an elephant , and then the mood became sad. I started to see why some circuses get such a bad reputation. All of the animals looked sad, tired, and spiritless. I took pictures of the elephants "swaying". This is when elephants in captivity are poorly treated and lean from side to side on thier feet as a sign of abuse and stress.
I took these pictures to my studio space to draw. I was in such awe when I first saw them, but the experience helped me create something that was more about how the relationship between humans and animals that has greatly evolved. From wolves helping humans hunt for food and how animals were used in sacred ceremonies for their guidance and acceptance in some cultures to now hunting them for game or to trap where they are forced to live in captivity.”
Picture below: A drawing of Nicholas’ great grandmother in a little town in Mexico.
