In advance of Artbeat Studio’s 24-Hour Art-a-thon Feb 6 to 7, CNC profiles the artists participating in this event that is raising funds for Artbeat Studio, an organization supporting artists with mental illness. Click here to read the other profiles.
Victoria Stone
“Sculpting is so emotional,” Victoria Stone says of her favourite artistic medium. “Because you’re directly connected to it with your hands.”
One of Stone’s specialties is sculpting the face.
“I find the face so fascinating because of the way you can manipulate its features.”
Stone entered Artbeat Studio‘s residency program seven years ago after a friend mentioned that it was a place to go and be creative when you’re experiencing a transition.
Stone knew it would be a good fit.
“I found that when I was going through periods of illness, I would naturally gravitate to making art.”
During Artbeat, Stone experimented with many mediums and eventually found her passion with clay.
She calls working with clay a productionalist method.
“All you’re working with is [clay] and it evolves more naturally because of the direct hand contact.”
Before enrolling at Artbeat Studio, Stone was a counselor at Osborne House, a career she found hard to balance with her mental illness.
“It was hard emotionally, [some were] IV drug uses and their lives were obviously devastated. It was hard in that respect, but it was also internally gratifying because it was sort of a place I could access an unconditional love for people.”
However, that unconditional love also blurred her ability to depersonalize her life from the women at Osborne House.
“I just decided it was probably not a good idea to constantly try and solve my own problems by helping other people, ” says Stone. “It can be a real double-edged sword. You can’t really get to yourself and what you need to deal with.”
Yet Stone says that when she sculpts, she often envisions the faces of the women from Osborne House.
“It was a survival resilience,” Stone says of the women, “That I had great admiration for.”
Feminist themes are often central in much of Stone’s work. She says it’s because of the paradox of how women are broken down into society as either the virgin or the whore.
“It’s an inner conflict every woman has.” And Stone says she hopes she can break down those barriers through her art.
Victoria Stone is one of seven Artbeat Studio alumni participating in the 24-Hour Art-a-thon from Feb. 6-7, 2014 beginning at 5 p.m. The 24-Hour Art-a-thon is an event to raise money for Artbeat Studio’s endowment fund, which supports its core-programming. To support Victoria and Artbeat Studio, please visit The Winnipeg Foundation’s website to donate online.
