Artist Reception | Victoria Rees
This Month’s Featured Artist is:
VICTORIA REES
The product of an Air Force family, Victoria was born in Germany in 1960. Like most military dependents, she has lived in twelve different places — from the East to the West Coasts of the United States as well as Germany and England. Drawing and painting became her obsession as a teen in the Girl Scouts while working toward her “Challenge of the Arts” Gold Award. Her parents encouraged her creative interests and helped her find artists in the community to mentor her.
After high school, Victoria studied graphic design and illustration at Arizona State University. She earned her BFA in 1983 and began working in the graphic design field in Phoenix. Since then, she’s had the good fortune to work as a graphic designer and illustrator for many national companies and clients. For her illustration, she primarily works with watercolor in a playful and whimsical style, which appeals to feminine and youth markets, as well as general consumers.
In 2014, the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission chose Victoria’s abstract artwork, “Color Spot,” for their public utility box mural program. You can view it at the corner of Ramsdell and Montrose Avenues. She’s also won a number of awards in group shows and has received rave reviews from private commission clients as well.
Victoria works in watercolor, oils, acrylics, pastels, collage and even fibers in her artworks, which can be loosely categorized as expressionistic, representational and abstract. Reoccurring themes in her work include circular, organic linear forms which utilize rich color and texture as well as imagery that celebrates light and subtle nuances. She states, “Making art this way gives me so many options for visually saying what I want to say, without words and in a joyful way, which, ultimately, is my goal… to bring inspiring and positive imagery into the world.”
Victoria maintains an Etsy store where she sells her art. She teaches art to primary school children in the La Crescenta area where she lives and also serves on the board for Glendale Art Association. For more information about her work or to contact her, please visit: www.vickyrees.com
“I appreciate art that is not afraid to show the beauty and fragility of it’s humanity…
with perfection and flaws alike.” —V. Rees
