Gabriela Anaya Valdepeña is a poet, artist, and dancer, born in Mexico City, and now living in San Diego, California. Her journey into self-portraiture began when she worked as a painter's model; the way her own image was metamorphosed through the eye of the artist inspired her to turn the muse's glass upon herself. Using digital photography, with a painter's eye and a poet's imagination, she creates worlds golden, earthen, and bronze.


Artist Statement

For me, the different art forms that I explore—poetry, photography, and dance—do not compete, but mutually inspire. Poetry gives me a feeling for the narrative implied by an image; dance makes me aware of the grace inherent in a simple gesture; photography allows me to bring this drama and this beauty together with a compelling immediacy.

I am usually my own model, and this is both the heart of the matter and a matter of convenience. There are multiple characters, multiple worlds, within every soul, and if I reveal the many sides of myself I can reveal the many sides of us all. As Walt Whitman said in Song of Myself: “do I contradict myself? very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.”

I am not a diary; I'm an an alchemist with a word. I am not a photographer; I am a liar with a camera. I do not wish to capture a moment, but an eternity.




Professional Associations


    San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA

    Digital Arts Guild, San Diego, CA