Vickie Porter of In My Head Studios:Loves art and it shows

Vickie Porter of In My Head Studios shares some insights on what it means to be an artist of altered mixed media and jewelry. Vickie is a thirty -five-year-old autodidact (artist who is mostly self-taught by means of non-traditional education) who lives in a suburb of Rochester who also exhibited at the Mayday Underground's Craft and Art show in May.  Her booth contained meticulous and ornate artwork that were condensed into mini works of wearable art. The display included artwork on dominoes, soldered microscope slides and scrabble tiles. Needless to say, this type of art draws special attention to the artist's great attention to detail and creativity.

The art bug bit Vickie at a very young age, probably as soon as she picked up her first crayon.  Her twin sister and Vickie both were encouraged to create and their mother has always been very diligent about fostering her abilities.  Vickie says that her mother would keep her well stocked in art materials as well as help from other family members.  One day, Vickie's grandmother came back from an antiquing jaunt and gave her a big bag of over 700 domino pieces.  She told her that she would figure out what to do with them and she did just that.  Vickie uses the dominoes as a small canvas for her artwork and some of the pieces have intricately carved-like details on them which comes from making an impression into the acrylic medium.

Most of Vickie's artwork revolves around the use of paper. Her passion is paper.  Paper fuels her fiery existence of art making. Vickie says, " I am constantly on the lookout for interesting papers. My heart gets all racy when I come upon neat old books and ephemera at garage sales. I have so much paper that my partner refers to my studio as The Fire Hazard."  Not just an avid collector but really a seasoned purveyor of papers she's collected and cuts out millimeter by millimeter of pieces that make up each mini 1 inch X 1 inch collage. Vickie will also draw and stamp onto these collages, further demonstrating her skills as an artist.  "If it sits still long enough, I will glue some paper to it." 
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Vickie discovered that after years of doing other types of jobs, nothing else makes her feel as whole as art makes her.  It's a great outlet, a release of sorts especially since she suffers from chronic pain and health issues.  Her artwork is always on her mind, sometimes using her iPod Touch (which she adores) to create and update her much needed social networking on days when she's not up to the task of creating. Are you a fellow artist and dying to know the right person in Rochester? Well, twitter Vickie at:  http://twitter.com/inmyheadstudios and maybe she can tweet you the info. you've been looking for.  Her gears are always on high- journaling, sketching future designs and formulating her newest endeavor to create her artwork on a much larger scale and re-size it to pendant dimensions.

Her main motivation to create is simply equated to breathing air, she has to do both.  She says that she either creates or feels dead inside. She even admits to being quite unpleasant to be around if she doesn't.  As a chronic pain sufferer, this is her medicine, a restoring and refueling kind which takes the pain and fatigue out of the forefront of her mind and allows her to escape. " It's about the REPRIEVE and healing. Art saves lives."  The healing does not only come from creating but the important relationships she creates along the way.  Most artists she meets are very generous with their insights and expertise which she believes to be an important element in art- community.

Vickie is very active in her business role too.  She belongs to the Etsy Twitter Team (past organizer)  which basically keeps a network of Etsians involved in the goings on of the Etsy art world.  Constantly being in the know is what twittering does for an artist: job opportunities; event announcements; tips; secrets of the trade as well as supply information, etc. The Etsy Twitter Team's mission is to bring Etsy sellers together who use Twitter to become the authority on Twitter for all things handmade. The team's Twitter account is twitter.com/etsytwitrteam
 Vickie is also a member of RNEST (Rochester NY Etsy Street Team) who is very active with their promotions and activities. She has forged many new friendships with RNEST members and feels the group to be a bit more focused on the personal side.  This locality offers more of an insight to possible questions for a crafter/artist such as the ins and outs of a local show, venues which allow credit cards and so on. 

Vickie offers classes at Studio 34 on Elton Street in the city where she teaches her process of soldering microscope slide pendants, Memories Under Glass.  Her class starts June 26th from 12-3 p.m. where all levels and no art experience are required. Once you see one of her pendants, you'll want to know more.  If Vickie's name is not listed as teaching that class, she reassures us that she will be. So please look for additional information that can be found on Studio 34's very informative website and give them a call (http://www.studio34jewelryartslearningcenter.com) Studio 34 is owned by Marilynne Lipschutz who founded this business in 1998 as an open studio space and has grown into a learning center with over 25 instructors who help manage the studio, the Mercantile ( wonderful merchandise for sale) and the gallery. Not only are classes there to learn but a tailored wish-list registry is available; private parties for both young and old; learn to teach programs; studio rentals and jewelry repair.

This artist doesn't get all hung up like many others passionate artists do when a person doesn't see what her intended meaning is for a piece.  She revels in the fact that so many are amazed that such tiny pieces of art are displayed on dominoes.  Vickie finds it exciting that customers can often relate to when they were a kid and played with domino pieces just like that.  She also feels that her love for art is not being compromised when someone views her piece differently- it's a subjective thing.  Vickie seizes that opportunity to educate her viewers on how the piece was created and her feelings and thoughts that went into that creation. She can relate to how it feels as an observer to be "let in on the secret" of how a piece was made. " I like to let people in on the secret. If i don't, then who will? I am the only expert on my work so I should talk about it."

Please check out Vickie Porter's creations on Etsy where the site allows you to communicate with the artist.  Also, there's another way of viewing her work, a much more elaborate showcase of pictures that make visible the quality and effort that go into each and every piece:(http://www.flickr.com/photos/inmyheadstudios/ )  For a chance to win one of Vickie's beautiful pendants, be sure to enter the giveaway on the RNEST blog page that will begin on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010: http://rochesternystreetteam.blogspot.com/

These are the ways to communicate with the artist:

• In My Head Studios: Altered Mixed Media and Jewelry
• Shop: inmyheadstudios.etsy.com
• Read My Blog: inmyheadstudios.blogspot.com
• Fan Me on Facebook: facebook.com/InMyHeadStudios
• Follow me on Twitter:  twitter.com/inmyheadstudios
• Etsy Twitter Team Member: etsytwitterteam.com