"I had an early fascination for rocks and gems. My mother’s family had emigrated from Europe to the high mountains of Colorado to search for gold. I remember walking around the mines with my great uncles; they would spit on scraps of ground ore to show me how magical they became when wet. Later on we lived in Lander, Wyoming—which is something of a gemstone capital for agates, jades, and beryl. The Air Force had a bombing range there, and my daddy worked on a pipeline that ran right through it. After a bombing session, we’d walk around the range and find all these moss agates and hunks of jade just lying on the ground, and they glowed beautifully in the light if it had just rained. I guess I was always interested in that kind of transparent colored space. The outside surface of a jewel is stunning, of course, but I was always mesmerized by the inside, the light coming from beyond."
—De Wain Valentine