Entering the Studio 2880 gallery, the viewers stare in wonder at the sculptures there and wonder if they've ever seen anything like them.
The artist knows they haven't. Vivian Martin self-taught herself in the techniques she uses to make the eye gripping figures now on display at the community showroom. She learned many of the underlying artistic principals from other artists, or from research, but the whole combination is hers alone.
It starts with wire being twisted and shaped into vague forms. That's an old process. It then moves to bits of fabric being dipped, painted or sprayed with a stiffening agent. Again, not new. But the shaping of that fabric into scenes, and the adding of colour and props, that is as individual as is Martin. The figures take on a personality - a tone that fits somewhere between Tim Burton and The Wizard Of Oz.
Although these figures are only about the size of a ketchup bottle (but some are tiny and some are tall), each takes Martin about a month to make. A lot of that is drying time after multiple applications of the hardening chemicals and the paint. Some of it is imagination time as she builds the mental image before beginning the physical process.
It is probably an asset, she thinks, that before becoming this unique kind of artist she was first a photographer, a jewelry maker, and other genres. She already had a sense of composition, rendering mental images into tactile form, and working with her hands. Part of the challenge is, she has to arrange her vision for a piece of sculpture into layers, and drape each one in its time, like a Ukrainian Easter egg painter has to figure out the layers of colour needed in chronological order to eventually end up with the multicoloured patterns at the end.
"It all has to go somewhere," she said, touching her hands to her head. "I see things, I work them out into these pieces, but I see them as something else."
To give the audience a clue about that additional mental material, each piece comes with a personalized card when purchased. The card contains a story that tells the viewer all the unseen context. The figure of a bride standing on driftwood, looking into the distance, with a yellow ribbon tied to the wood is, in fact, saying goodbye to her newlywed husband, a soldier, who is departing Canada for war. It is a statement on national history and an homage to classical poetry that once would tell in words what she has fashioned into a sculpture.
Each figure has a surreal quality to them, but each one also possesses one non-fabric item that is literal to the scene. A stylized cowboy has an actual sisal-twine rope; an astronaut has a bubble helmet; the longing bride has her yellow ribbon.
These items, and the bits of stiffened cloth that comprise these frozen ghosts, are all bits and pieces, scraps and cuttings, from recycled socks and dish-cloths and clothing. Part of the inspiration Martin feels for this form of art is reusing something that had served out its original purpose.
"Why throw out an interesting piece of fabric, or these little touches I like to include? Why not give it more life, as a piece of art?," she said.
She has been solidifying otherwise pliable materials - thought and fabric alike - for about two years. Her prices reflect her developmental stages of mastering this medium. She is nudging into different kinds of uses for this artistic style, however, like hardening and colouring some common items like a hat or a pair of shoes, doing little more to them than catching them in a moment of time. She makes direct-use art like fabric hardened into decorative scarves for wine bottles, or sleeve boxes for tissues.
"I haven't done anything really big because I'm still interested in the intricate, and I'm still learning how to shape the wire armatures and the fabric," she said. "People ask me all the time 'do you teach this?' and so far I don't because I'm still enjoying the novelty of it myself. But all my other artistic pursuits evolved, and I do sense i'm evolving with this, too."
Although she doesn't teach this process as yet, she does hope to lead other artists into exploring new creative territory, pick up unusual tools, and embrace the unfamiliar. She hopes her exhibition at Studio 2880 will inspire.
"Maybe it isn't about art, but I do hope someone looks at this astronaut and goes 'hmmm' and maybe is inspired to paint an astronaut, but maybe it triggers the mind differently, like reading a book about scuba divers or sparks a desire to become an astronaut. As long as it triggers something," she said.
Her collection is on display in the exhibition entitled Upcycle-Transform-Create, featured in the Studio 2880 gallery until May 8.
