Valerie
-Lio White, 2025
This is a portrait I did of my Nana Valerie to practice realism. We do a Yankee swap every year at Christmas time in my family (more commonly referred to as a white elephant) and I gave this away as my gift to the family. My nana Val is one of the most beloved members of our family, and her passing when I was little was hard on everyone, especially my mother. She also invented our family tradition of not only laughing at our mistakes, but sharing them with others so we can all laugh together. My mom always told me if she knew how little time she’d have with my nana when she passed, she would’ve named me after her, which is why for my online alias, I took her name as my middle name. This piece was done with pencil on 18 x 24 paper.