The Childhood Still Life series combines a love for figurative representation and objects from the artist’s childhood. The figure becomes the backdrop for arrangements of baseball cards, toy dinosaurs, plastic animals and Matchbox cars. This series began in watercolor, explored pastel, pastel washes and mixed-media using thick graphite, sepia chalk, watercolor and pastel together. Most works are large, though Valentine’s first etching was from this series. To date, all their works are from the 1980’s.