Valeria
Arroyo

BIO

Valeria Arroyo was born in Florida and grew up in northern Illinois where she graduated from Warren Township High School. Arroyo will graduate from Bradley University with a BFA in Studio Arts with a concentraton in Graphic Design in May 2024. She also learned to enjoy printmaking and illustratng at Bradley. In 2022 Arroyo received the Mendez-KK Endowed Scholarship from the Slane College of Communicaton and Fine Art. Aside from the arts, she is president of Bradley’s K-pop dance cover group where she enjoys teaching students how to dance at all levels. During the Summer of 2023, Arroyo went on a 2-week study abroad in Granada, Spain where she learned how to travel write
and immerse herself in the culture. In the future, Arroyo hopes to incorporate her illustraton and design skills into projects and jobs that utlize her expressive creatvity.

Artist Statement

Titled ‘Bridges’, represents 5 other people that I have met at diferent tmes of my life and their respectve cultures. I created a series of posters that included six diferent variatons of cultures. My purpose was to highlight myself as a Person of Color artst and the people in my life where I can also showcase their identty through my art. It was a collaboratve project as I individually questoned each person about their culture and what they feel best represents their identty within each respectve background. To sway away from the typical English language and American culture designs we are taught, I want to experiment with other languages and how I can manipulate their type to create posters representng their culture. I also get the chance to research and connect with other cultures that are not mine.
My style of illustraton comes alive in this series as I created all the iconography for each poster giving the personal touch of the project. I ensured to include bright colors everywhere to ensure the meaning of the posters gave a feeling of happiness and positvity to the viewer. From clothing to food, I made sure to accurately portray the person’s culture. The connectng factor between all six posters is the natonal fowers seen across each poster. The Flowers hold many meanings and wrap up the essence of the countries shown. Manipulatng types other than the English alphabet was also a challenge as I had to experiment to showcase personality while also keeping its accuracy. In the end, I made it where my style was met with the words of my relatonships. Not only will I get exposure, but the people around me who need it more.

SELECTED WORKS