Luis Valderas received a BFA in Art Education from the University of Texas-Pan American ‘95. In 2005, Valderas co-founded and produced Project: MASA I, II, and III—a national group exhibit featuring Latino artists and focusing in Chicano identities. He also co-founded A3—Agents of Change LLC, a large-scale printmaking community engagement collaborative. Currently Valderas is a mentor and board member for the New York Foundation for the Arts. He has exhibited at the Medellin Museum of Art, Colombia, the Queens Museum, NYC and the URC Arts Block, Riverside CA. His work is featured in books such as: Altermundos-Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film and Popular Culture. Mundos Alternos-Art and Science Fiction in the Americas. Chicano Art for Our Millennium-2004 and Triumph in Our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art-2005. He is in the permanent collections of UTSA, Arizona St. University, Art Museum of South Tx and the San Antonio Museum of Art. Artist statement I am a multi-disciplinary artist from the South Texas frontera. My process for making art has been informed by my experience growing up and working in a family owned and operated flower & ceramic shop. I make work that is based on meso-american mythology intermingled with science fiction, outer space and stories of my ancestors. I take icons and transform them revealing a connection through the past, present and future —sometimes it is obvious, sometimes ambiguous.