Published

Publication;
Fictitious Form: An Exhibition of Paintings by Vikki Drummond
March 23 to April 20, 2019

Introduction

THE ART OF VIKKI DRUMMOND
by Robert Bigelow

Vikki Drummond is self-taught, which means she didn't attend an art school or an art program in a university to learn what should come naturally to a creative person. I, on the other hand, spent four years in one of the best art schools in LA, California, learning opinions and biases of dozens of accomplished artists; all of whom believed that they knew better than me what I should expect from a life long pursuit of art. I spent the next ten years unlearning what had been imposed upon me in order to find my real voice. My point is that we are all self-taught in the end, and Vikki has taken a less circuitous route.

Vikki is knowledgable about the subtleties of visual language as evidenced by the refined brushwork that distributes paint across the surfaces of her papers or canvases. She has obviously looked at a lot of art in order to select the use of paint that best suits her approach to painting. This is the best training one can receive. The skillfully painted passages that link the different fragments of the human anatomy across the surface of the canvas validates the integrity of the 2D surface. She is clearly comfortable pushing paint vertically and horizontally across a flat surface reinforcing the notion that space and time are functions that need only to be applied to negotiating 3D reality. This action indicates that she is right-brain oriented, operating at a frequency above the narrow spectrum of visible light that is required, if you are navigating the so-called "REAL WORLD". Vikki's job is not to validate the orginary, everyday world, but to present us with challenges that cause us to think and feel in a more profound way.

Now, this is where it gets more interesting... If the creative artist is to see beyond the shallow veneer of physical reality, he/she or in this case, Vikki must find ways of experiencing the deeper truths that lie below the surface. That means that Vikki has accepted intuition or a trust in a higher order that informs through universal channels. Everybody uses this under-utilized ability on an infrequent basis but it's artists like Vikki who have developed this ability beyond the ordinary, and who have become expert at a way of being, that sets them apart.

Artists who study colour are colourist, artists who study line are draftsmen, and artists who study right thinking are experts on instinctive reasoning. The latter is the most important tool the artist must master to move forward in producing work of significant content. Vikki has stepped over this threshold and is producing work that is worthy of greater attention.

Vikki's work is coming from a place of singularity where it is highly personal and visually engaging. The various shapes and combination of shapes that represent body parts, for example, are convincing and feel comfortable. They express what they are intended to and they offer a different view of perceiving the ordinary. It's not so esoteric that people don't get it, but it is different enough to give the viewer a fresh take on reality. I would be remiss if I didn't draw attention tot he fact that she is honing in on a personal sense of colour that supports the imagery she has developed. In this series of paintings in particular, Vikki has integrated the many elements that go into creating a coherent body of work. This is her best yet given my limited knowledge of her work. This work takes calculated risks and in my estimation is has delivered.