Valerie Mendoza
California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland

As a visual artist, writer and educator, Valerie Mendoza considers her collective role to be that of a communicator, working to extend understanding across boundaries of class, race and gender. At the 1992 Society for Photographic Education Western Regional Conference, she co-presented Exchanges of Direction, a collaborative project combining video interviews with noted California photographic instructors, and a panel discussion, to exchange ideas, information and concerns state-wide. She co-curated a show of student work at San Francisco Camerawork in April 1993, and has worked as a teaching assistant at San Jose State University and the California College of  Arts and Crafts.

Her installations combine images and narrative, exploring the social constructs of history and media as they conflict with the individual potential and the development of sense of self. Story telling has become important to her as a means of giving voice to those who have been historically marginalized. Two of her installations, Objects of Desire and Larger than life were shown in the Bay Area in 1991 and 1992. She received a B.F.A. in Photography from San Jose State University, California in 1992. Upon completing her M.F.A. she plans to continue her work as an artist, writer and educator.