Maria Socorro Valines

I've been MIA for a while - a litttle traveling plus I was down with a stomach virus. I started out in Los Angeles, planning to show Ivette's designs to some stylists and to a friend who would help me develop promotion and marketing ideas. But some "bug" laid me low for three days and made me cancel all my appointments in LA.

So, on to Portland for a visit with my sister Anita, who with her boyfriend Mike, works with fused glass. Stevie's Artisans will soon include their candle sconces, sun catchers, coaster sets and jewelry - images soon to be posted. Then Anita, her daughter Alyssa, Mike and I drove up to Washington State to meet up with sisters Joie and Zoralie who are potters - two more soon-to-be additions to Stevie's Artisans.

The family get-together of four Trudeau sisters, various brothers-in-law and many nieces and one nephew took place to commemorate the first anniversary of our mother's death. We marked the date by cooking a dinner that celebrated her's and our culture. My mother, Maria Socorro Valines, was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and came to New York with her mother and three brothers in 1936. She was six years and spoke no English. Although she was born a US citizen, she came to America by way of New York Harbor, sailing pass the Statue of Liberty and thus sharing the experience of so many European immigrants before her.

My mother eventually became totally bilingual and was completely American but she knew and remembered discrimination growing up a little Puerto Rican girl in NYC and later from my father's mid-West American family. Her beginnings were harrowing - my grandmother brought her children to New York to escape an abusive husband who beat her in the presence of her children. Mom was amazingly accomplished following the "American success model." She educated herself, worked hard and built an income tax business that served clients in her home state, California, and then eventually from all over the US. Her business began with and continued to serve Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants, many of whom she helped become American citizens. She never forgot her roots.

So we cooked a huge Puerto Rican feast. I made chicken fricasee (chicken stewed in a tomato sauce seasoned with onions, garlic, bay leaves, oregano and green olives.) I also cooked arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas). And all of us rolled dough and filled pastelillos (little pies) to be fried by another sister. Pastelillos are the Puerto Rican version of empanadas. Anita and her daughter made flan and Joie made a pineapple upside down cake - my mother's favorite and a dessert we always make for any and all family gatherings. As one of our family friends once commented, "If it's a Trudeau gathering, there will be pineapple upside down cake." We toasted mom and ate well. We told lots of stories and it seemed a very good way to mark this first anniversary of her passing.

Ivette Urbaez, Silkscreen Artist & Apparel Designer

An important aspect of my relationship with the artisans I represent and work with has been product development. Sometimes it's a matter of fine-tuning and refining an an artistic idea and sometimes it's a question of suggesting better quality control. I've been working pretty closely on style development with Ivette Urbaez, who produces distinctive silkscreen designs on women's and men's apparel.


Born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Ivette hails from a family of artists and craftspeople. Her "screens" have a Latin flavor with her own unique twist. Her major themes include bold red roses printed on black or silver roses on navy or for an edgier look, black on black. Another rose motif she uses is steel gray roses with thorns. It's "Carmen" taken to a whole other level.

Ivette embraces NYC and pays homage to her urban home by splashing fire escapes over dresses and t-shirts. In this high rise city she also prints subway escalator scenes on shirts and tunics. Another motif she prints on hoodies, dresses and scarves is an intertwined mess of cables - Ivette's work definitely epitomizes Urban Folk Art.

I'm attempting to chase the January Blues with a special sale of her apparel Saturday, January 23 from 2:00 to 6:00 pm at Gumbo, a shop in downtown Brooklyn. The address is 493 Atlantic Avenue, bet. Nevins and Third Avenue. Ivette will be on hand to introduce her new and very hot lingerie - lacy tap pants and camisoles - perfect for Valentine's Day gifts.

Check out her web site at http://www.ivetteurbaez.com/ There's also images on my site http://www.steviesartisans.com/

More about how Stevie's Artisans started

I work with such unique artists. I found my Bronx-based artists through the Bronx Council on the Arts. In 2007 I was hired to manage and buy for the Bronx Museum gift shop on a budget that was miniscule by any standards. I seem to remember I was told to start with $5000 for the first year and maybe it would increase going forward. I bought some graffiti books because the Bronx is the birthplace of Hip Hop and graffiti and the Bronx Museum is a museum of contemporary art. That was a no-brainer. I added feminist art books for a feminist art show - essentially trying to build a stock of books that complimented the exhibitions.



Then I turned to the Artisans' Initiative of the Bronx Council on the Arts to obtain gift items for the shop. I met several artists at a monthly craft fair at Hostos College and invited them to place their work at the museum shop on a consignment basis. For other gift items, I reached out to four women graffiti artists who had installed a mural for a feminist exhibition at the museum. They turned me on to women graffiti artists in Japan, Germany and Toronto and I began to carry their work (bags, t-shirts, sticker art, posters, etc.) at the museum shop.



I never intended that the Bronx Museum gift shop would excusively carry Bronx artists and soon the shop included artisans from all over NYC. All the work at the museum shop was diverse and eclectic and that diversity continues in the Stevie's Artisans collection which I started this past October when I left the museum and its shop closed. My one rule of thumb in creating the collection was not to have any of the artists competing with each other. The three jewelry designers I carry work in entirely different mediums and create pieces uniquely their own. However, collaborative efforts are now beginning among Stevie's Artisans: a painter is working with a jewelry maker and a fashion designer is advising a soft sculpture pillow maker. This is good. Thus far the painter/silversmith collaboration has yielded earrings that are mini abstract paintings with sculptural elements - truly wearable art.

Who and What is Stevie's Artisans

I created Stevie's Artisans as a curated collection of museum quality hand crafts and wearable art made by graffiti and fine artists. Stevie's Artisans is actually a continuation and extension of a retail relationship with several Bronx-based artists begun when I was manager/buyer of the gift shop of the Bronx Museum of the Arts. After I was laid off (another causalty of the tanked economy) I expanded the group of artisans I was working with and resumed this retail relationship on my newly created web site: http://www.steviesartisans.com/


I now represent a group of fifteen artists with an eclectic collection of goods that includes hand-hammered silver jewelry, mobiles crafted from found objects, graffiti-painted model subway cars, art for children with a distinctly urban point-of-view, hand-made soaps and candles and hand painted silk-screened apparel.

I plan to introduce the incredibly talented artisans of Stevie's Artisans, show their work and talk about how my interest in folk art snowballed and evolved into my interest in what I think of as urban folk art.


Stevie's Artisans is a brand of hand-crafted, artisanal goods that I call "Urban Folk Art." My artisans create from a hip, urban perspective. The statement is often bold and "edgy" and it is always created with artistry and fine craftsmanship.