Vivienne Jagger Artist – Up Close & Personal

We are excited to be representing Vivienne Jagger and invite you to get to know the artist in our Up Close & Personal Q&A feature below.

When did you first feel the desire to be artistic and realize you had talent?

I have always been interested in art and my hobbies have always included some kind of creativity, whether painting, ceramics and of course in the last 7 years my final and abiding passion, glass.  On leaving school, I wavered between law and art, and took the safe road of law.  I am fortunate that I have been able to keep art strongly in my life and at the latter part of my life to make it my main occupation.

Where did you learn your art?

I started with a weekend course making glass jewellery  in Perth and went on from there – mostly self taught but with the benefit of some amazing workshops with international glass artists.

What inspires you the most?

The glass itself probably as it is such a versatile medium.  But I love all things water and the colours of the sea and the fluidity of water seems a perfect match with the flow of glass. Lately I have become a bit obsessed with the trees of our south west, the amazing colours and textures of the bark.  

What message are you sending to the viewer of your art?

The glass I love doing most are the thick layered sculptural pieces and I hope that the viewer has both a sense of looking in and looking through.  In a landscape or seascape there is much that is hidden, and what is shown is revealed by light.  That is what I am hoping to explore in these pieces.  

Describe your studio

Dirty and messy. A new project starts in a clean and tidy studio but by the end.. I am lucky to have a big light space with separate areas for setting up the kilns, cold working and sandblasting areas. I am moving shortly and the new studio will need work so I will keep you posted on that.

Describe your typical day of creating art

There is no such thing as a typical day for me.  My favourite is the setting up process. I do not draw what I am going to do although i have in my head what I am aiming for and how I am going to achieve this.  But the work tends to have a life of its own and it may sound ‘cheesy’ but I do let the glass talk to me to a large extent.  So I may start with cutting some glass or I may make some frit elements which I will incorporate into the glass later.  If it is a cold working day, then I know I will end the day wet,  exhausted and filthy, but as that is the time you see the finished work emerge.

What mediums do you use and why?

Glass – sheet glass, powdered glass and frit (little pieces of glass).  I use steel parts sometimes but have a steel fabricator make these for me and just recently I have been adding metal finishes to some surfaces of the glass – brass and copper.  Why do I use glass? For me if not glass it would be ceramics but I find glass opens itself to more possibilities.  There is not only the shape and the colour of a piece, but the light reflection or refraction which plays such a huge role in glass art.

What are you working on now? 

Trees.  I am about to do a piece in black and white and shades in between – may be exciting, or may be boring, but it will definitely be different for me. 

What are your recent career achievements you feel proud of?  

I still feel I am getting established. The fact that people buy my glass is wonderful, both for the fact that they share my love of glass and like what I do, but also so that I have the funds and space to make more glass.

What do you love most about what you do?

All of it.

Where can you see yourself in 10 years time? 

Making more glass.  I may get too old for cold working heavy pieces although I am sure I will still be making glass. 

We currently have no Vivienne Jagger artwork at JahRoc Galleries.