Victoria Wiercinski of Edmonton, Alberta is the artist for our final issue of 2011! It has been a whirlwind year and we couldn’t be happier to finish it off with such a talented artist, designer, and maker of all sorts of fine things.
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P: So give us the rundown: who are you and what do you do?
VW: I was born and raised in Edmonton,Canada. I went to school at the University of Alberta and studied Visual Communication Design. After a stint at NSCAD in Halifax to study surface design and more than a few trips to Montreal, I continue to call Edmonton home. After all, my parents are Polish immigrants, and there’s sure a lot of Polish delis in this town to keep me going.
In addition to working as a graphic designer I have designed a line called Veekee Workshop since 2007. Starting with paper goods and moving right along to silkscreened and dyed textile goods plus ceramics, the products I create for Veekee Workshop are the end result of all my musings, drawings on napkins, as well as wants and dreams. My goal in artistic life is pretty much to slather everything out there with pattern and colour.
In working towards my above goal, I work in whatever medium catches my eye, and I am forever curious about new processes. I am trained as a computer-based designer but over the years I’ve found that I prefer the technical, hand-made, fine craft side of things. I picked up a little silkscreen and printmaking knowledge in school, but most every other technique I’ve learned just by experimenting. For example, I have recently fallen head first into dying fabric (for textile projects such as totes, tunics and cushions). I’ve taught myself how to make letterpress prints, create foodsafe ceramic designs, and I work with materials from the humble HB pencil (my favourite) to papercutting and on.
And on top of a busy design and craft life, I co-coordinate a local craft fair called the Royal Bison, which is entering its 6th year.
P: Like a lot of creatives, you straddle the line between artist and designer. How do your simultaneous practices feed off each other, and do you ever feel tension between the two?
VW: I think it’s hard to separate the two, and I enjoy being both a designer and an artist. They are actually quite harmonious with each other, especially in product design. I have the ideas, but also the skills to execute those ideas.
Design is a very practical, solutions-based profession. Often there are clients involved who need me to communicate their message, not my message. It is a satisfying challenge to think with the client’s shoes on. The trade has taught me how to be organized and patient. I am able to think critically about production problems and to know how to aim for the specific end results that I have in mind. I also have the skills to get to design all the packaging for my own products, which is super fun.
Of course, design can be a little dry at times, too, and that’s where the artist side comes in. In addition to designing my own wares, I do the occasional editorial illustration and gallery show to showcase my work.
P: How have you noticed your work changing over the years?
VW: It’s been a natural evolution! I look back and can see where I was coming from, and how I got to where I’m at, but there is no crystal ball to the future. I still draw patterns, and I still draw flowers. I am much less interested in figurative representations than ever before, so that’s interesting to note. I have refined my digitization over the years so I get smoother illustrations when moving from paper to computer, but in other places, I’ve managed to eliminate the computer entirely as I’ve realized it has been handicapping things.
P: What’s your work set-up like? What’s your process like?
VW: I count myself insanely lucky to have a lovely studio office in my house from which I do most of my work with our two cats purring at my feet. If it’s patterns and drawing I’m after, usually I will take a sketchbook to a coffee shop and spend a few hours letting my pen wander, and use those drawings as a starting point for whatever surface design I’m thinking of creating. I own a C&P platen press which lives in my dad’s garage as it’s far too heavy (1200lbs!) to sit in my house, so any letterpress printing happens out there, and I do all my silkscreening at an artist-run print shop in town called SNAP.
P: Who or what are your biggest sources of inspiration?
VW: It’s funny, because my personal style is very monochromatic and very understated, but in terms of design I do have a confession to make: I just love colour. I have found myself staring at ceramic glazes, or a knit sweater, or a fall leaf, unable to tear my mind off the beauty of a certain colour or combination. I’d say that my patterns and designs are very much designed to sing with the colours I choose in mind. In terms of movements, the Wiemar Wersktsatte produced amazing surface design. I also admire African tribal motifs a lot for their simple and raw power. Of course, folk art from my Eastern European roots plays a role. I do love scandinavian motifs as well – Marimekko ranks high up there as a trailblazer for me. Another very key source of new ideas for me is travel. There is absolutely nothing like getting out of my day-to-day environment to bring on an onslaught of new ideas, and I take the opportunity to travel near and far as much as I possibly can.
P: What’s on your plate for the next year? Any new developments and exciting events?
VW: This coming year will see Veekee Workshop expand into a few more products, and have a larger distribution in retail stores and online. I’m also looking at perhaps starting a small retail venture in the future, and drawing a few unique wedding invitation templates based on my illustration style. I have to keep reminding myself it’s a marathon, not a sprint – some of this stuff may happen next year, some may not happen until the next, but I am definitely working on all of it….all the time.
P: What are your top three favourite projects when you reflect on your portfolio?
VW: My most recent dyeing adventures have been a great favourite, as they have been a step into a totally new territory where I’ve felt quite comfortable from the start. I do love this folk art flower print Papirmasse is printing as well. I have also started drawing designs for ceramics, and that has been so fun that I am looking for partners to launch a line of dinnerware (see them all in our Sneak Peek here).
P: Talk a bit about your folk art motifs and the inspiration behind them.
VW: This particular poster was inspired by a gallery show asking the question “Where Are You From?”. I am from Poland by heritage (hence the wycinanki motif of the flowers), but I also wanted to reflect the mad obsession I have with patterning, something I picked up in Canada. If this poster was a food, it would be Canadian-Polish fusion. Maple syrup perogy, anyone?
