Forge in fire at 1800 degrees is where you will meet one of the newest artists in Marin County, Valentine Stachowski. Valentine, or “Val” as he is known by most of his friends, has a long family history in the town of Greenbrae, where he was raised most of his life. However, being a child of divorce is never easy, and at the beginning of his sophomore year in high school, Val’s mom decided they needed a change in pace, and she packed up Val and his sister Zoe and left the Bay Area for the small town of Hayfork.
Located in the Trinity Mountains of Northern California, Hayfork has a population of just 2,400, unlike the Bay Area population of 7.75 million that Val and his family left behind. However, this small historic logging town is where he acquired the skills to become a welder and artist.
“I was never mad to leave (the bay area). It seemed all my life I had been in the wrong environment. I was ready to leave; the soul-sucking vanity competition had grown too old to bear any longer. A change of pace and scenery was just what I needed,” he said.
“Unfortunately, by the time I had moved to Hayfork, the town was on the decline, a logging town in decades passed, now mostly inhabited by marijuana growers. There were either really great, community-oriented, hardworking people in Hayfork or those who had been beaten by life,” said Val.
Being a new guy in town, he found he had a lot to prove, not just to others but to himself. Val found his artistic inspiration at school.
“In high school, we were required to take an art class as an elective. I had convinced my principal to let me spend my art period in shop class creating different art pieces out of metal and wood,” Val said.
With the guidance of an agricultural teacher, Morgan Rourke, at Hayfork High School, Val joined the Future Farmers of America – Agricultural Welding program and found his love for the metal, sparks, and fire that changed his world forever.
According to Morgan Rourke, “He was a natural, and it was so good for Val to find something to call his own. I can always tell when I have a student that has a natural ability and an appreciation for the art.”
After high school, he was accepted to the California State University – Cal Maritime Academy. However, after one semester he knew college wasn’t for him, and neither was the partying and debt that came along with it.
Val’s philosophy is “College isn’t for everyone. I had the drive, technical know-how, and creativity to have a successful career as a designer/fabricator/artist right out of high school. I did attend Cal Maritime for a semester. I loved studying mechanical engineering, but ultimately, I could achieve more without four additional years of schooling. College would not aid in achieving my immediate and long-term goals,” stated Val.
Valentine decided to trust his heart and put faith in himself over the school and, along with a set of hard work hands, made his way back to Marin County to try to make it on his own.
“As for myself, I see no end to my artistic endeavors. There will always be something to learn, something new to perfect, and something new to incorporate into my art style,” Val added.
As for the future, Val would like to be known for making excellent, heirloom-quality furniture and objects with beautiful designs and unmatched attention to detail. Located now in Novato, California Valentine does business as Lust Designs Fabricate and is a fabricator by trade now.
“I am relatively young for what I have achieved so far. All of what I own in my shop, I own outright (so far). I started my business in 2017 on the back of an old beat-up Jeep Grand Cherokee, with a generator and a welder. Picking up work here and there, utilizing friend’s garages in exchange for work, and the slow grind towards a better tomorrow was underway. Up until 2021, I had not accepted any loan. All of my equipment, hand tools, and the rented shop had all been paid for by the work I had done. In 2021, I was fortunate enough to be able to take out a small loan from my family, which was a major step up in shop space and equipment.”
“His determination and drive is inspiring,” stated Ceytera Berthold, his public relations spokesperson. “I am so proud to be able to represent him on his journey. He is such a hard worker and never lets anything get him down even though sometimes it is hard to find inspiration. It is easy to help promote someone you believe in. I want to help people know who he is and how amazing is art is.”
Valentine says what he finds really inspiring are, “Hardworking people who do what’s right because of principles or morals they hold, not because they are rewarded. Morgan Rourke, my shop teacher in high school, and personal mentor of mine, was my first real look into what a hardworking attitude will award you- stability.”
He admits that he must do the regular fabrication jobs to pay the bills, keep paying his employees and to keep the shop open. The work for fabrication is steady and easy to get done for someone with strengths that match the iron he forges and will build anything he is contracted to make. However, to say that he is “just another welder” is not giving Valentine justice.
He is clearly an artist that has put his heart and soul into everything he touches whether is a steel fence or a table for restaurant he designed that included steel and imported tiles with a patina shine of four different colors he named, The Evolution Table. There are also very few welders that can create a masterpiece of art out of a rock he found from a river and turn it into a stone wrapped in metal to create a beautiful bench. This unique style incorporates a look reminiscent of a medieval era, but natural materials are more challenging to Val. Currently, he is working on a way to arch metal with high pressure water from the inside out to form a distinct shape and use a patina glaze so it will continue to look as if it is wet and give it depth. His current piece weighs over 200 pounds and consists of over 16 individual pieces.
“Every art piece is a challenge. If it does not challenge me, I won’t bother trying. Through mixed media, metals, stones, woods, leathers, fibers, etc., I’m able to learn how the two materials are able to mesh, connect, or bond. The reaction I seek for each of my pieces (of art) is a mix of wonder and evocation of emotion. The wonder comes from the gentile and flowing form I create from usually rigid and unforgiving materials. The emotion is in the proportions and staging of the piece.” Val said.
Val finds he has a love-hate relationship with metal sometimes and says, “It can be so beautiful but so damn unforgiving, and it can take a great deal of time and effort to become beautiful.” Val talked about another artist named Jesse James who is a metal sculptor, and how Jesse always tells people he works with, “Metal is clay.”
However, in Val’s opinion, “Metal is strong, stable, and can be made into shapes that can exist because of its structural properties. I love all-natural materials equally. It has just happened in my circumstance that I have been able to make a prosperous career in fabrication.”
“My art is the compulsion of disagreeable materials into an agreeable form. I am the mediator bringing an argument to a conclusion. I’ll attribute that to my somewhat reclusive nature. I’m not one to openly share about myself without someone asking me first,” Val said.
He continued, “Pricilla was my first ‘go’ at a real sculpture. A study indeed, I wanted to see if I could physically represent an emotion, where someone can look at her and understand what she is feeling and a little bit about who she is. She is a physical representation of raw, simple contentment, a feeling I believe we can all relate to at some point in our lives. Chin up, posed upon a hilltop, enjoying the day with a flower in hand. Everything has a price. If I were to sell Pricilla, the amount of money attained would have to compensate for the pain of her leaving my life,” he stated.
As Val described the process in which he works on a piece and how long it takes him, he stated, “The duration of a project is totally dependent upon how much of a challenge I’m looking for. Some projects require studies in material behavior, multiple iterations of a single component, and sometimes chemistry. Priscilla, for example, took four days to complete, while others can take months to complete.”
As Val continues his journey to find his next inspiration, a Christmas card was received with a hand carved Christmas tree printed on the cover. He chose this year carve out of the metal plate to print and create his own cards “Wishing my family and friends a Very Merry Christmas full of Lust Designs.” What will he think of next?
The B Side 