I had not seen her work until recently, but really like the originality and querkiness of her pieces, also the subjects and variety in her work. She uses layers of coloured slips with sgraffito. She uses patterns, something you see a lot in sgraffito work, and unusual colours for the animals. Again a folky feel, like a lot of sgraffito.
She says:.
"I don't really plan ahead, the sgraffito just guides me. Its a bit like being possessed or meditating. Then I sit back, look at what I have done and think 'oh, thats alright!' That is the process".
She also does 2D paintings
I can relate to this, I've had some wonderful late Friday night sessions in the Clay Labs. Getting totally absorbed in the work without any distractions. Also my new sgraffito tools have really helped this traditional approach. I do like texture in the clay underneath...I know you can smooth this out on the newly rolled clay, but I prefer to keep it, and actively look for textures to roll in sometimes.
Two late Friday night pieces.
Vicky does quite a lot of "Mantlepiece Cats", sgraffito on 3D. I like the effect, can be a single colour, blue or black on white.
She also uses writing...This is done in her own handwriting. I like this and have tried inlay in my own writing on an earthenware piece inlayed with (vitreous) white slip, then scraped back. I am coming to a similar conclusion that words can be used to convey a depth to a piece - another layer? The writing conveys the ethos or puts a question into the observer's mind.
Vicky originally studied textiles and was inspired by a collection of North Devon Slipware.
She won the BCB prize in 2019 for her Dead Dad Book. This was a collection of 12 vessels which told the story of Vicky's dad coming over as part of the Windrush Generation. A lot of political ethos there then.
Like Ben Fosker I think she 'humanises' the animals a bit.....think this occurs in a lot of art in ceramics. Don't think this is neccessarily wrong as we all look for a bit of ourselves in the animal, we are all souls. The colours are unusual for animals, but I very much like this and have been trying to incorporate different (unusual) colour in my print work. These are two of my latest prints on ceramic.
Vicky obviously spends quite a long time on her pieces. She also seems to understand cats well! Nice work!
Another artist, mentioned in an earlier blog, with comparable work is Reiko Miyagi, who is a Japanese artist based in USA. She is Studio Tabularasa. I like the use of gold to highlight, this is something I am trying with some of my sgraffito work.
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