Vicky Stonebridge exhibition launches

An exhibition of paintings by SciFi Art Now contributor Vicky Stonebridge and John Mikietyn, and a ceramic sculpture by Allison Weightman, will open at the Scotland Russia Forum’s Edinburgh premises tonight at 6pm (Friday 12th August), attended by Sergei Krutikov, the Russian Consul General.

The weeklong exhibition accompanies music by Scottish singer, songwriter and translator, Tommy Beavitt, whose long-term project to interpret and perform the work of the Russian Bard, Vladimir Vysotsky (1938-1980), in English and Russian, has been an inspiration for the work displayed. Alongside the artworks, the exhibition will present Tommy’s performances in Russian and English of some of Vysotsky’s songs, which feature universal themes of faith, conflict and individual freedom.

After closing in Edinburgh on the 18th, the exhibition will then re-open at the Inchmore Gallery, near Inverness, on 19th August.

Vladimir Vysotsky is almost universally known and loved in the Russian-speaking world and in many parts of the former Soviet Union. Yet, other than to a few Russophiles, who appreciate that he may be the genuine “heir to Pushkin”, his work remains relatively obscure in Anglophonia.

His more than 1000 songs have been translated into over 60 languages, yet in his lifetime he was never officially released in the USSR, his songs instead being distributed by a process called ‘magnetizdat’ (tape-to-tape copying). Incredibly, over the course of his short and intensely lived life, he also managed to become a major theatre, TV and film actor.

While he was branded “anti-Soviet”, he was never referred to as a dissident writer and is often thought of as a great Russian patriot. Beginning with the ‘blatnaya pesnya’ (outlaw songs) genre, deriving from prison ballads sung by those returning from the Gulag, his songs branched out to deal with an extremely broad array of themes, in which human freedom and faith are often central.

Tommy, who has already traveled to Russia four times to perform mainly Burns songs (in Russian and Scots-English) said: “I’ve always been fascinated by the power of song, both as a means of expressing a nation’s culture and of transcending the differences between nations. Performing and translating songs from different cultures is also a great way to learn languages.

"Singing Burns to Russians showed me just how valuable a role the Bard fulfills – it’s more important than ever that nations are able to understand one another. As soon as I heard Vysotsky – whose birthday, 25th of January, is the same as Burns’ – I became obsessed with him. His basic message, at the same time deeply Russian and internationalist, has a lot in common with Burns’ message of ‘A man’s a man for a that’. I hope that Vysotsky will one day become as well-known (and loved) in Scotland as Burns is in Russia.”

Vicky Stonebridge at work

Vicky Stonebridge is a painter, illustrator and fire fighter. The inspiration for her work comes from a fascination with archaeology, history, anthropology, ancient art, myth and epics and how people have interpreted their world, as well as the universality of stories and symbols.

Vicky, who has also had an enduring fascination with Russia, said: “This collaboration has been a fantastic opportunity to develop the work I started when I visited Russia last year. There I was painting Scottish and Celtic myths and stories, and now I have had the opportunity to paint songs by a Russian Bard.

"It's normal for me to work with other people when creating comics and Graphic Novels, but it is unusual to work this way with paintings. I am very excited to see how Russians, Scots and other people will react to them. I hope they will convey the spirit of Vysotsky’s songs in a way that can be understood by everyone.”

Living in the Highlands since childhood, she has developed a passion for traditional Scottish folklore and Pictish/Celtic stories and art. Following a Golden Deer motif has led Vicky on an on-going artistic journey towards the East, where the Russian passion for art, culture and literature has reinvigorated her own work.

In 2010 she was invited to attend the Yelabuga International Art symposium organised by the Elabuga State Museum Preservation Area in Tatarstan. While there, she produced works for exhibition in the Shishkin Gallery on the theme of ‘Breath of the Epos’, and contributed to discussions exploring the cross-cultural connections in epic traditions and cultural practices.

Vicky interprets universal human experiences through her figurative and narrative art. She weaves connections between the post-modern western experience and the global, historical perspective, seeking an accessible visual vocabulary.

• Read our interview with Vicky Stonebridge here

Web Links

• Vicky Stonebridge - Official Site: www.balnacra.com


• Allison Weightman - www.allisonweightman.co.uk

• John Mikietyn - www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33280558139

• Tommy Beavitt - www.globalvillagebard.co.uk

Steampunk explored in major US exhibition

Jules Verne was one of the earliest science fiction writers, but what if he were alive today? US SciFi Art Now readers who enjoyed our steampunk chapter, which featured work by artists such as Patrick J. Jones, Bill McConkey and Vicky Stonebridge, might want to check out an exhibition running until May in Foxboro, Massachusetts, which puts a steampunk spin on Verne's Captain Nemo, the submariner in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Steampunk enthusiasts Steampuffin (www.steampuffin.com) and exhibition creators 5 Wits (www.5-wits.com) have come to together to show people what kind of technology and art could have been on the Nautilus if Nemo was piloting his submarine today.

Think of Steampunk as an alternate reality where the Victorian period happened at the same time as the computer or information age – what would have been produced in modern innovations, inventions and gadgetry. In fact, many believe that Jules Verne was really one of first Steampunk thinkers to popularize the genre.

The 1000-square-foot Nemo's Steampunk Art & Invention Gallery, which will be open until 30th May, will feature primarily museum quality 3D artwork/inventions from Steampunk artists across the country. The artwork will be for sale and can also be customized for clients.

• Check out the Nemo's Steampunk Art & Invention Gallery exhibition, which included details of the artists featured


• Official Exhibition web site: www.5-wits.com/20000leagues.aspx

Drop in on artist Vicky Stonebridge

Vicky Stonebridge at work

For those of you going to the British comics convention Thought Bubble in Leed this weekend, drop in on the Eco-comics workshop run by Sci-Fi Art Now contributor  Vicky Stonebridge.

The workshop will run from 1.30pm-4pm on Sunday in the Leeds Art Gallery Tiled Hall and
admission is free.

Vicky, who's currently working on the comics project Slaughterman's Creed written by Cy Dethan, will be showing how to make your own handmade small storybooks using a variety of recycled products such as waste products, old magazines, scrap paper and packaging.

"It's quick, easy and fun to do," she enthuses.

This is a drop in workshop, but places are limited so if you want to be sure of a place you can pre-book by emailing thoughtbubbleinfo@googlemail.com.

Vicky will also have prints of her own work for sale over the weekend.

• The full programme of Thought Bubble events is here:www.thoughtbubblefestival.com/full%20programme%20new.asp

• More about Slaughterman's Creed


• Read our interview with Vicky


• Visit Vicky's web site at: www.balnacra.com

Sci-Fi Art Now Creator Interview: Vicky Stonebridge

Vicky Stonebridge at work

Scottish Highlands-based Vicky Stonebridge describes herself as "an artist, firefighter, youth worker, convention organiser, and other things!

"I think living in remote rural North West Scotland has caused this chaos," she says. "It’s always been necessary to duck, weave and multi-task to stay afloat. I do whatever is required, with whatever is to hand.

"I was also a single mum for 20 years -- which gives me a determination and pragmatism. I clashed with art college tutors who didn’t approve of my fantasy and figurative work, so studied Ceramics instead of painting and missed out on life drawing/ anatomy but gained a practical skill and avoided the fine arts elitism.

Among the Waves by Vicky Stonebridge

"Stressed out with a chaotic life I turned to anti-establishment politics, ‘druidism’ and living on the road in the late 1980’s: I may cringe at the memory from the cynical sidelines of 2010 but this period laid the important foundations of themes which I still pursue today."

So it's not so much that Vicky was late to the digital art/ fantasy & sci-fi art party it's that she had to take a 20-year detour with three children, a bag of clay, sack of firewood, chainsaw, pan of lentil soup and a pack of dogs on her back.

"When I arrive at the party it turns out I’m at the wrong party, in the wrong era, wearing the wrong costume and I don’t speak the language, but hey it's a brilliant party anyway!" she laughs. "So I paint realistic looking landscapes and shortbread tin subjects for the local galleries because I need to eat. I paint fire fighters, because its mad fighting fires and dealing with car smashes with an artist’s eye, and because I can.

"I make things because things because it’s a compulsion. I draw and paint imaginary characters, fantasy, comic’s art because it’s a challenge, and because there are a pantheon of ideas and characters fighting to get out of my head. I run workshops and master classes, in comic art, recycled crafts and anything in between - because working with people is inspiring, keeps me on my toes and there’s nothing like the buzz of enabling creativity in others."

SciFi Art Now: What tools do you mainly use to create your art?

Vicky Stonebridge: Photoshop for digital work, for traditional - Acrylic paint, watercolours, coloured inks, sticks and glass, found objects, whatever is to hand.

SciFi Art Now: Why?

Vicky: I was late to learn Photoshop, I just didn’t have a fast enough PC or time to play. I still feel I’m scratching at the edges, but for illustration work it gives me more flexibility and speed. I’d have to work on canvas for weeks to achieve the same luminosity and depths.

However you can’t beat traditional materials, I like to work with both at the same time as they feed each other. I use Acrylics like PS layers building up opacity and texture gradually.

SciFi Art Now: What inspired you to become an artist?

Vicky: I think I first stated this intention aged 5 -- possibly earlier. The compulsion to create is innate. Every so often I think I should grow up and get a job that actually pays the bills, but life has been hard and it's taught me that now at my age, I’ve earnt the right to do what I want to do, which is front line real hands on art jobs no matter how tempting those salaries of art establishment project managers look.

SciFi Art Now: What was the most useful piece of advice you were given when you began learning your craft? 

Vicky: Mostly I feel like I’m fighting all the un-useful things people have said! I'm spurred onwards by every rejection, snub or sneer. But my School art teacher had faith in me and encouraged me to keep going, He once said 'You must paint a thousand real trees before you can attempt a fantasy tree'. Then we struck a deal that he’d let me do one fantasy piece a term if I did all the boring still life’s the curriculum required.

SciFi Art Now: Which artists most inspire you?

Vicky: Most of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, John W Waterhouse. Arthur Rackham, Brian Froud, folk art, discovering new artists like Viktor Vasnetsov. Various comic artists, for example Simon Davis for his painterly approach, loose brushwork and accurately observed characters. But really if I need a boost I just go outside and look at the mountains, trees, waterfalls or of course there are my trusty books of Celtic, Pictish and Scythian art.

I try to look at things differently, for example if I am drawing a horror comic I will avoid looking at other horror comic artists as their images will fill my head and stop my own interpretation getting out.

SciFi Art Now: What is the appeal to you of science fiction as an inspiration for some of your work? 

Vicky: When I was seven, I found a Sci-Fi anthology in the school library, with stories by Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, H.G.Wells, Phillip K.Dick and others. I was transported into those worlds long long after the teacher took the book off me as I was too young to understand it.

After the Snow by by Vicky Stonebridge

Sci-Fi, like (good) fantasy, westerns, and comics, strips away all that’s depressing, oppressing, vacuous and superficial in our real modern world. While SF writers may of course satirise the rubbish around us they evoke places where people are stripped back to core values, heroes, villains, quests, adventures, redemption, love and discovery.

Adventures are quite hard when there’s CCTV on every corner, the council tax needs paying, a risk assessment filling in, reality TV show to watch, products to consume at tescos and peer pressure to conform to. Sci-fi is more than escapism; it is free enough to reinvent ourselves, our society, to envision alternatives, to lead us boldly into potential futures. For my work I like to take the real, the historical, the possible and just nudge it sideways a little.

SciFi Art Now: Do you have a favourite piece of work or project you have worked on?

Vicky: It’s always the next piece I’m working on as nothing is ever good enough. This picture was I think the second that I did in digitally & I like the looseness and texture I managed to get in there. It was for a 2000AD message board monthly competition ‘Into the Heart of the Sun’

SciFi Art Now: In your career, have you had any bizarre experiences while creating your art (cats walking across a canvas, like Roger Dean once did, for example)?

Vicky: Cats will do that sort of thing, chewing the corner of the work, jumping up on it, plenty of that, I had hens, ducks and goats at my last house, so yes there was always animal hi-jinks if they broke into the studio.

'Damping Down' by by Vicky Stonebridge
- one of several pieces inspired by Vicky's
work as a firefighter

There is nowadays the joy of getting a fire call out mid brush stroke. My chaotic permanently interrupted lifestyle has given me a rather five minute concentration span methodology. I’m lost if there isn’t chaos or a crisis to attend to.

SciFi Art Now: What most frustrates you about being an artist? 

Vicky: Everything? My middle name is artistic frustration.

Elitism, snobbery, genre definitions, the limited market place, lack of money, lack of time, lack of freedom (see all the other frustrations), art hierarchies, the limited methodology of art understanding and teaching in UK establishments, limited understanding of art in general public, lack of general arts education, lack of funding, lack of materials, lack of support, my own shortcomings in anatomical understanding, the dog harassing the postie when I’m trying to focus, my deteriorating eyesight, cat jumping on the wacom, bad lighting and no heating, stupid uncomfortable chair, no space and basically not enough hours in the day.

No matter how much I try and cut out all the voluntary work, admin, PR work I still spend 95 per cent of my freelance time doing work that isn’t actually art. Argh!! It's just the way I’m programmed, a little driven, that cranky edge is a good motivator.

SciFi Art Now: What keeps you going despite the hopefully occasional frustrations?

Vicky: Creativity is not a choice, it is bigger than me, whether what I make or draw is any good or not it simply must out. It pulls me forwards and is the only thing that makes sense of anything. It's communication between the inner world of mind and the outer world of other people, communication requires discipline and thought -- otherwise fingerpainting and making mud pies would be sufficient fun to stay sane... Mind you, I might get more kudos from the arts establishment if I stuck to mud pies, mud pies with cats paw prints in.

SciFi Art Now: What advice would you offer to anyone starting out as an artist?

Vicky: Accept criticism from people who know what they’re talking about, pay less attention to family, friends and the bloke across the road who “knows what he likes and that’s a bit weird innit?”.

Bounce back from rejections, there are millions of people out there doodling, forget your ego and work hard to find what it is that makes you different. Draw, draw, draw, copy images you like, study artists from other genres, traditional fine art, anything -- go to life drawing classes; draw anything and everything all the time.

Finally, follow your instinct and create in the way you want to, not what you think people want to see and not what you think you can get away with because it avoids drawing things you find difficult. Never mind if it doesn’t fit in any boxes and if the artist making mud pies wins all the prizes.

• Check out more of Vicky's work at www.balnacra.com or balnacra.blogspot.com. Contact  Vicky via pottery@balnacra.com