{"id":13202,"date":"2016-04-13T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/in-the-works-with-wrangell-artist-vivian-faith-prescott\/"},"modified":"2016-04-13T08:00:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:00:19","slug":"in-the-works-with-wrangell-artist-vivian-faith-prescott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/in-the-works-with-wrangell-artist-vivian-faith-prescott\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Works with Wrangell artist Vivian Faith Prescott"},"content":{"rendered":"

CCW: <\/strong>Do you have any particular creative routines or habits \u2014 favorite spaces to work, times of day, materials you use, music you listen to, etc.?<\/p>\n

VFP:<\/strong> I used to have a studio in Sitka, but I recently sold my home and moved permanently to Wrangell to Mickey\u2019s Fishcamp. Since my fishcamp is small, my studio is outside on my front porch overlooking the ocean, surrounded by nature. My studio\u2019s name is Raven\u2019s Beach. It\u2019s a real place and space but also virtual Facebook page. My father built a cleaning table, near our fish cleaning table, and my husband is making a space on the covered deck so that I can sculpt there. All my supplies are currently stored in a container van along with our fishcamp\u2019s tools and taking up space in our carport near our smokehouse. Eventually I\u2019ll have a studio space inside but for now I\u2019m outdoors.<\/p>\n

I create art from antique and vintage pottery shards, glass, seaplanks and seametals that I scavenge from Wrangell\u2019s old garbage dump beach. Sometimes my sculptures are loosely planned, or sketched out, and other times I go to my work table with a \u201cblank slate,\u201d which is usually a seaplank I\u2019ve salvaged from a boat graveyard.<\/p>\n

CCW: <\/strong>How much found art (or other art) do you usually get done in a one-day period?<\/p>\n

VFP: <\/strong>It takes me a day or two to clean and scrub the pottery and glass. I use only sand and water and, occasionally, eco-friendly dishwashing soap. I like to leave the natural tannin on the pieces. During the course of a sculpting day it\u2019ll appear that I\u2019m digging for treasures in my supply totes. The broken glass and pottery are organized by size and some by colors. My favorite boxes are called \u201cshapes and colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sculpting the found objects is like putting together a puzzle and there is so much beauty in the broken pieces that it can make one giddy. When I\u2019m going through my seaglass and pottery it feels like I\u2019m searching through treasures. I\u2019ve invited fellow artists and writers to look through my materials and so I know it\u2019s not just me who\u2019s fascinated by our broken discarded past. There\u2019s also mystery in it. What was this thing?<\/p>\n

Because I have to find the right pieces, completing a sculpture can take days to weeks, even a month or more. The John Straley poetry piece took a couple of months to sculpt.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a writer too so I find that balancing my time between writing and sculpting is beneficial. Beachcombing and sculpting gives me the break I need from my lengthy writing sessions. I write early morning until early afternoon, sometimes spending 3-7 hours composing or editing. With the mixed media sculptures I can spend the same amount of time, but typically I devote a couple days a week to the sculptures and the rest of the time I\u2019m writing.<\/p>\n

CCW: <\/strong>How do you balance your creative life with your day job?<\/p>\n

VFP: <\/strong>I\u2019m a full-time artist, but I also live at Mickey\u2019s Fishcamp. My father lives with my husband and me. We depend upon nature for our food so the writing and art must wait if the blueberries are ripe or the hooligan are running up the Stikine. But living a subsistence life also means I incorporate that life into my art. I take a notebook with me out harvesting food and I find myself jotting down ideas or discussing ideas with whomever I\u2019m with. I\u2019m always the artist\/writer. I can\u2019t separate my art from picking berries or jigging for halibut.<\/p>\n

CCW: <\/strong>What do you find particularly inspiring?<\/p>\n

VFP: <\/strong>I find other artists inspiring and I\u2019m also inspired by the landscapes, cultures, and communities in Alaska. I also like irony, especially historical irony, as well as juxtapositions and multi-layering concepts. Sculptor Vanessa German inspires me. Her work is breathtaking and so unique. I love unique. I work with discarded glass, pottery, and metals so I\u2019m inspired by Preston Singletary, Dale Chihuly and early mosaic masters too; plus Alaskans Amy Meissner, Jaqueline Madsen, and Susie Silook\u2019s work causes me to think outside the box.<\/p>\n

And, of course, the beach inspires me. Beachcombing is an important part of my writing and art process. I often get my ideas while picking up a specific glass shard from the beach. Each piece has a story to tell. I\u2019m a storyteller. My modes of storytelling are writing and sculpting mixed-media pieces.<\/p>\n

CCW: <\/strong>What are you working on now, and when do you hope to finish it?<\/p>\n

VFP:<\/strong> In Northern Sami dialect, g\u00e1vdnat means to unearth; to find; to uncover, to locate. I\u2019m thinking about my multicultural heritage and trying to incorporate that into my work. Simultaneously, I\u2019m exploring the concept of Muitalus, a Sami term for \u201cstory.\u201d I\u2019m using the Sami method of telling several stories as once. Also, I want to do more garbage fairies, and more faces. I\u2019ve sculpted a representation of master carver Tommy Joseph and my daughter Vivian Mork and also poet John Straley. It could take me a year or more to finish a series of these pieces. My dad and I harvested quills from a road-killed porcupine so I\u2019m currently designing and creating a face that incorporates those quills.<\/p>\n

CCW: <\/strong>What advice have you heard (either directly, from someone you know, or indirectly, from reading or otherwise learning about another artist) that\u2019s been beneficial to you? Separately, do you have any advice for other artists?<\/p>\n

VFP:<\/strong> Find like-minded people. This is advice I heard when I was younger and advice I offer now. Like-minded people don\u2019t have to be artists, but I do think that talking art with other artists or writers is important, if not necessary. Kristian Cranston and Tommy Joseph at Raindance Gallery in Sitka have encouraged my mixed-media art early on. Kristina helps me to think outside the box, too. Eugene Solovyov of Sitka Rose Gallery also encourages me, plus he sells my art in his gallery. My sister, and fellow beachcomber, Joy Prescott, is also my like-minded friend. My advice is to find these encouragers and people you can talk art with. If you\u2019re shy or you can\u2019t get away from your home or job then try a Facebook group. There are lots of welcoming spaces for artists and writers on Facebook.<\/p>\n

With my writing it\u2019s the same thing, so find a group of writers. Ask other artists and writers what\u2019s going on in your community. And if there are no writers or artists groups in your neighborhood then create a group. I founded Blue Canoe Writers in Sitka and Flying Island Writers and Artists in Wrangell. And if there isn\u2019t a place to show your art, or read your work, then create a space. Get your work out there into the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CCW: Do you have any particular creative routines or habits \u2014 favorite spaces to work, times of day, materials you use, music you listen to, etc.? VFP: I used to have a studio in Sitka, but I recently sold my home and moved permanently to Wrangell to Mickey\u2019s Fishcamp. Since my fishcamp is small, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":13203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13202"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}