The following are fighting words: All art is conceptual. That is to say, all art has some meaning behind it, something the person who made it is trying say, solve, draw our attention to, or convey. It might be the qualities of the person in a portrait brought through facial expression (Leonardo de Vinci, Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun), a priority…
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The Meaning of Conceptual
The Superpowers of Turtles, Masters, and Madonnas
Of all the Ninja Turtles…uh, I mean Renaissance masters, It’s Leonardo da Vinci that calls to me, not Raphael, and yet, lately I have come to fall madly and passionately in love with Raphael’s drawings. I’ve come to love them so much that I’ve been sneaking (so called) spare moments to copy them in graphite and conte pencil in order…
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Problems for a Polymath
Once of the challenges I have discovered is that being a polymath is fine if you’re a man and an Old World Master, but it’s an uphill ride for an American woman in the 21st century. With all of us bombarded with so much information 24/7, American culture is, now more than ever, a pigeon-holing society. Often when people see…
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The Super Yacht’s Etched Screen – Complete
The etched screen for the bespoke, 69 meter, super yacht was the initial commission I received from the interior design company. It is comprised of 104, 218mm x 105mm copper panels, etched, patinated, and pigmented on both sides. With exactly 30mm between each panel, they are designed to hang rigidly in a curved formation with twined S hooks in between….
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Become Part of the Giving Voice Project
Giving Voice is a multimedia ebook and print book about the connections we form. We’re frequently told that life and success are about relationships. What always strikes me is the astoundingly ephemeral and fragile interconnectedness that makes such relationships possible. It is from these contemplations that the project, Giving Voice, was formed. It is a collection of mixed media gilded paintings, to…
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The Utterly Riveting Panels Are Coming Together at Last
Panels #1 & 2 on the left side of the Turtle Screen are utterly riveting (groan, yes, bad joke!)…meanwhile De planishes panel #3 of the right side, and Uduak meticulously wraps the twined S hooks for the other #superyacht commission. What you thought the turtles were enough work for the 3 of us?!? Just wait…
Lining the large cluster domes on panel #1 of the Turtle Screen
When things have to be mind numbingly, exhaustingly, painstakingly perfect, my hammer is ready. More to come…
Texture You Want to Touch
These Eastern repousse panels are designed to function as sliding pocket doors to cover a large media screen on board the 69 meter super yacht, Samaya. In the original sample I was commissioned to create in 2016, I translated the client’s and the interior design company’s vision of sea turtles, which were inspired by aboriginal art, into dimensional hammered relief…
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Early Cyber Monday + Giant Turtles
10% off on all orders over $100 on art jewelry and metalsmithing products + Free Priority Mail shipping within the USA or discounted international shipping.* at VictoriaLansford.com Use coupon GIANTTURTLES Sale begins Friday, November 24 at 12:00 AM, EST and ends Monday, November 27, 2017 at 11:59 PM, EST P.S. This is the last sale we’ll be running in 2017, so don’t miss it!!!…
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Thankful for You!
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Wherever you are on the planet and whatever you celebrate, I’d like to take this time to let you know that I’m thankful for you. You are my collectors, fans, customers, and friends, and knowing that we are connected through my artwork makes me thankful every day. Please enjoy this calligraphy version of…
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De on Domes
My studio assistant, Deanna Pastel planishes each individual dome on the Turtle Screens
The Eyes Have It
These few seconds are a tiny fraction of time in the reality of planishing the eye of one of the turtles.
Hammering from Side to Side
The Turtle panels continue! Working the metal from both sides. You might be surprised at the tools.
The Mallet Switch
Catch that slick ambidextrous mallet switch? A must when this many months of hammering is required. Puffing out panel #4 of the Turtle Screen.
Hammering My Heart Out
Architectural metalwork by Victoria Lansford incorporates ancient techniques utilized on large scale projects for contemporary spaces 1 of 2 projects for a 69 meter, custom built superyacht – stay tuned for more progress photos
Back into Stardust
From stardust we are fired and scattered, aggregated and evolved, only to spend our limited existence seeking to aggregate, create, and evolve quickly before the light burns away back into stardust. I wrote that one day at my local coffee shop in the middle of writing something else entirely. Apparently, while one part of my brain was focused on a…
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Back in the Studio 15% Off Sale at VictoriaLansford.com – coupon code: BACKINTHESTUDIO15
It’s been the most intense spring and summer of my career with the completion of 2 commissioned architectural works in metal, followed by 3 weeks in Europe teaching and imbibing in art, music, and drama with my family. Now that I’m back in the studio, I’m working on other big projects, some long promised, some surprises. To celebrate working inside…
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Breathing in the Past
Smell is the sense most strongly linked to memory. While I’ve always had a wildly accurate long term memory (I can remember my first birthday and party) my sense of smell has long been diminished by allergies. Maybe it’s my giving up and giving in and stopping all the benadryl and steroid sprays, but for whatever reason, my sense of…
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Meta Schadenfreude
For Mothers Day today, my son gave me a gift certificate from my favorite garden store, my husband gave me AirPods, and a hacker group in Turkey hijacked my brand new website. (Rest assured! No evidence of hacking anyone’s data on the site but mine.) Instead of enjoying my garden with my AirPods in my ears, I spent more than…
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Shoes and Self Consciousness
Rio Grande has recently released a video on my Eastern Repousse Tool Sets that we filmed when I was there teaching last January. It’s exciting to see it out there on YouTube at long last since this is a topic we’ve wanted to feature for a long time. As with all things Rio, everyone I worked with was exceptionally professional,…
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Us
Life has been exceptionally rough lately. The thing I have dreaded for decades is happening: my godmother Bobbie, my chief artist inspiration, is dying. I can best describe her as an expressionist painter and sculptor, a folksier, heavy set Georgia O’Keeffe with a long white braid and always wearing a hat, and a woman who embodies the concept of unconditional…
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Women Versus the Gatekeepers
When I was a kid, the first thing I ever wanted to be was an astronaut. Well, technically, the first thing I wanted to be was a cat, but when, at the age of 2, I ordered “French fries and Little Friskies” at a restaurant, my parents freaked out, and my feline dreams fell aside. When I stopped walking around…
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Creating Your Own Reality with a Purple Crayon
I remember in elementary school, the awe and anticipation tinged with uncertainty as the teachers would pass out the Scholastic Books printed forms from which to choose books. I remember wondering how books came to be on the forms. Who got to choose them? Are these books on the list all there are? The only ones for sale? The books…
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Starfish and Coffee
I was deeply saddened when David Bowie died earlier this year and thought nostalgically of the many hours I spent listening and dancing to his album, Let’s Dance, in the 80’s. The day I learned of Prince’s untimely death, I got the wind knocked out of me. In recent years I’ve been less likely to listen to Purple Rain than…
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