Meet the maker: Vicki Fanning creates art with ceramics and glass.
Vicki Fanning is as comfortable throwing clay as working with molten glass
It’s a good thing that Matakana artist Vicki Fanning finds solace in the process of repetition – each of her intricate glass artworks requires the creation of thousands of components, and the pretty ceramic dinnerware she makes by hand as Frolic Ceramics requires a similar consistent approach. “Repetition… creates a freedom to generate and problem-solve ideas,” she says. The multi-talented artist began her career as a ceramicist before retraining in glass and has carved out a niche by combining the two disciplines in her practice. Most recently this has meant using ceramic master moulds on which to build silicon bodies. “The ability to work both practices simultaneously is both challenging and rewarding.” Vicki names her 2004 Bathmat, Soap on a Rope and Used Toothbrush series as her favourite glass pieces, alongside recent work
User Generated Content 3. The latter, she says, is a favourite because it is technically and conceptually pivotal to her future creations.
My favourite things are Piopio: It’s a place where my partner Mike Petre and I and our son Sam can go to get away. Mike’s family farm is there and has the Mangaotaki River running through it, where I fly fish. We ride dirt bikes, there’s barely any cellphone reception and the rocky landscape and mountain air is my idea of heaven (1). Mountain biking in the redwood forest at Rotorua is fun and relaxing in a whole other way. It’s stunningly beautiful and adventurous (2). I grow lots of dahlias on our property at Matakana and sell them at my studio (3). As artists Mike and I support and collect New Zealand contemporary art. It is an essential part of living and documenting life (4). See more at instagram.com/vickifanningglassnz, facebook.com/frolicceramics and vickifanningglass.co.nz.