CCW: Do you have any particular creative routines or habits — 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’s Fishcamp. Since my fishcamp is small, my studio is outside on my front porch overlooking the ocean, surrounded by nature. My studio’s name is Raven’s Beach. It’s 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’s tools and taking up space in our carport near our smokehouse. Eventually I’ll have a studio space inside but for now I’m outdoors.
I create art from antique and vintage pottery shards, glass, seaplanks and seametals that I scavenge from Wrangell’s old garbage dump beach. Sometimes my sculptures are loosely planned, or sketched out, and other times I go to my work table with a “blank slate,” which is usually a seaplank I’ve salvaged from a boat graveyard.
CCW: How much found art (or other art) do you usually get done in a one-day period?
VFP: 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’ll appear that I’m 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 “shapes and colors.”
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’m going through my seaglass and pottery it feels like I’m searching through treasures. I’ve invited fellow artists and writers to look through my materials and so I know it’s not just me who’s fascinated by our broken discarded past. There’s also mystery in it. What was this thing?
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.
I’m 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’m writing.
CCW: How do you balance your creative life with your day job?
VFP: I’m a full-time artist, but I also live at Mickey’s 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’m with. I’m always the artist/writer. I can’t separate my art from picking berries or jigging for halibut.
CCW: What do you find particularly inspiring?
VFP: I find other artists inspiring and I’m 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’m inspired by Preston Singletary, Dale Chihuly and early mosaic masters too; plus Alaskans Amy Meissner, Jaqueline Madsen, and Susie Silook’s work causes me to think outside the box.
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’m a storyteller. My modes of storytelling are writing and sculpting mixed-media pieces.
CCW: What are you working on now, and when do you hope to finish it?
VFP: In Northern Sami dialect, gávdnat means to unearth; to find; to uncover, to locate. I’m thinking about my multicultural heritage and trying to incorporate that into my work. Simultaneously, I’m exploring the concept of Muitalus, a Sami term for “story.” I’m using the Sami method of telling several stories as once. Also, I want to do more garbage fairies, and more faces. I’ve 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’m currently designing and creating a face that incorporates those quills.
CCW: What advice have you heard (either directly, from someone you know, or indirectly, from reading or otherwise learning about another artist) that’s been beneficial to you? Separately, do you have any advice for other artists?
VFP: Find like-minded people. This is advice I heard when I was younger and advice I offer now. Like-minded people don’t 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’re shy or you can’t get away from your home or job then try a Facebook group. There are lots of welcoming spaces for artists and writers on Facebook.
With my writing it’s the same thing, so find a group of writers. Ask other artists and writers what’s 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’t a place to show your art, or read your work, then create a space. Get your work out there into the world.
Painting the Landscape, by Vivian Faith Prescott.
The Space I Want to Enter is a found art piece inspired by the poetry of Sitka author John Straley.
Some of the seapottery Vivian Faith Prescott gleaned from the beaches of Southeast Alaska waits to be used in her art.
