April 17, 2018

Meet Victoria Fuller in West Town

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Fuller.

Please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The pediatrician that my mom took me to as a child had an art studio attached to her office. She used to take me in there to look at her art and gave me one of her watercolors. I still treasure it. At an early age I also took a trip with my class to Philadelphia where we saw paintings of John Singer Sargent, and The Dutch Masters. I was blown away by their precision and beauty. In high school I was exposed to the work of MC Escher, Georgia Okeefe, Joan Miro, Cubism, paintings of Francis Bacon, and Surrealism. In college I was exposed to the work of Marcel Duchamp, Dada, Constantine Brancusi, and the Pop Art movement of the 60’s. In the manner of Duchamp, I use common everyday objects, as building blocks to make abstract forms and designs. Everyday objects serve a function in our world, one can also imbue them with symbolic or metaphorical content, based on what these things do. For instance electrical outlets and cords deliver power. In my art piece titled “Self-Empowerment,” the cords don’t power anything but the power sources within the work itself, hence the title. I grew up on a farm surrounded by nature, so nature is reflected in my work, The forms I create out of man-made objects also reflect objects in the natural world. A star made out of traffic cones, resembles a seed pod, pollen, diatom or radiolaria, for instance. I have always been fascinated by natural science illustrations in biology textbooks and by displays in natural history museums, so, out of my interest, I have also developed a second body of work that uses those sources as an inspiration, where I combine sculptural forms that directly depict nature with paintings of biological subjects.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have had a few breaks, like finding funding for, and got help creating, my first large scale sculpture, “Shoe of Shoes”, for a show at Navy Pier many years ago. That sculpture went on to be in a show in St. Louis at the Children’s Museum and then was subsequently bought by Brown Shoe, in St. Louis (who recently changed their name to Caleres.) I also won the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship award that year, which was unexpected. After that I was also commissioned to create a large scale sculpture in Seattle, called “Global Garden Shovel”, but that was a different story; It was a very difficult journey. It took me 3 years to make, but it was worth it in the end, even though I really made very little money on it ( like around $3 an hour). Being in the art world has it’s ups and down, The gallery that represented me in Chicago closed, but now he has reemerged with a temporary space, so I may be showing with him again. Last summer I curated a show at The Ukrainian Institute of Art, called “Domestic Disturbances”, which showed six artists, including myself. This coming summer, another show I am curating, with my work and two other artists, will be at the Boulder Museum of Natural History. It isn’t easy to make money in the art world. I would like to sell more work, so my plan is to start making a series of smaller works that are more affordable to the average person.

Victoria Fuller Studio – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I create one of a kind fine art pieces. My nature based artwork is influenced by displays in natural history museums and natural science illustration. They are a combination of painting and sculpture; Some are wall pieces and some are pedestal pieces. I also have a series of sculpture made from everyday common objects, like kitchen whisks, guitars, books, and traffic cones, which I appropriate to create assemblage structures. Often these works mimics forms found in nature, like seed pods, cell structure, diatoms, pollen, tendrils and vines. There is a kind of humor in these works as well, and also a level of elegance in their forms.

I am best known for my large scale public artworks, in cast bronze and aluminum.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me success is people wanting to collect my artwork, people and communities wanting to commission my artwork, and also galleries and museums wanting to show it. On a personal level, success is when I create something that I love, that turned out exactly as I had envisioned it to be in my mind. When I love an artwork, then I know it is a success.

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