Artists » Victoria Rodgers
"My life changed the day I walked into the Quay School of the Arts, and has been exciting ever since."
Based in Wanganui, Vicki Rodgers is an internationally recognised glass artist. From April - December 2005 her work is exhibited alongside pieces by her own glass "heroes" in Wheaton Village New Jersey's Museum of American Glass. This is a major exhibition called Particle Theories: International Pate de Verre and Other Cast Glass Granularities.
Pate de Verre or paste of glass, is an ancient way of working with the medium, rediscovered in France during the 19th century and revived during the 1970s. Particle Theories is the first large-scale exhibition of the process since perhaps the early 20th century, involving artists from Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.
"For the exhibition, I was the only invited New Zealand artist. It's a bit mind-blowing to be displayed alongside all those other names." Simply, pate de verre uses glass powders and up to sugar crystal-sized pieces called frit, mixed into a paste and then fired on to a mould. Vicki is one of only a few Kiwi artists using this technique.
Among other venues, her work has been on show at Te Papa, in Seattle's Global Art Venue, and has involved making regular trips to Australia, USA and Korea.
"Before UCOL, I worked largely in sales and in hospitality, but I decided my life would be incomplete unless I became an artist. I was attracted to the [Quay] school because of the visiting international artists and lecturers. Originally I went there to paint, and then I discovered glass, and life has never been the same. It was the best thing I ever did."
