Illustration Blog | Interview with Vigg.

What is there behind Vigg's art?

This is a short interview that explains how started and how constantly grows Vigg 's passion for illustration.

Q: How did your artistic career start?

A: It started as something totally improvised without any form of thinking or preparation, like everything else in my life for that matter. I'm not a man with a plan. I was 25, working as a bank commercial account adviser. I felt like an intruder doing someone else's job day after day. The feeling grew for two years and on a fine Friday afternoon I quit my position to become an illustrator. I had started reading several art history books and tried putting together a first portfolio. It wasn't a great portfolio but it was decent enough to get me accepted in a college art program. I fell in admiration with the idea of creating images for a living in a non-nine-to-five environment, it just seemed like it was meant for me. The illustration program was set over three years but my patience barely lasted for two, after which I wanted to give a real shot at freelance. I had to work as a picture framer for a couple of years in order to survive, but with time the first contacts and contracts came my way. My first assignment was an exploded tech view for a sewing machine.... fascinating no? Soon I moved on to painting and drawing humorous characters for various publications. I have been a freelancer illustrator for the past 10 years.

Q: Wow, that is really interesting. Did you have any other formal training?

A: My education is quite diverse and has little to do with being a banker nor an illustrator actually. I did my school years in six different countries, my dad was a foreign officer for the Canadian government. When I turned 18, I decided to move back to Canada to enter university. I graduated with a Political Science degree from the University of Ottawa in 1994 and another one in Slavic history and literature in 1997. I also had a strong interest for anthropology and ethnology. At that time I had no intention of becoming an illustrator, I probably didn't even know the word "illustrator", most people don't. So my art education is mostly self-taught and passion driven. In fact I think my art education will go on for as long as I work. That's what makes it an exciting job. Not a week goes buy without an interesting discovery, whether it be a tool, a particular technique, a new material, an invigorating reading, an art exhibit ... It's all continuing education to me.

Q: What does usually inspire you, and how do you manage your work?

A: I'm starting to think my work studio is not a major source of inspiration, really, it comes to me anywhere but there. Working in my car or the shower would be more appropriate. I'm mainly inspired by broader human behavior rather than very specific events. My work is very conceptual so in a sense I try to take a step back from my inspiration sources to see a wider thematic conceptual picture. I'm mainly inspired by social issues and politics. Health topics are very interesting too. Overall my work is also inspired by our modern way of information consumption from multiple sources. You'll here about a topic on the radio while doing something else, later you'll reconnect with it on the television news, you'll Google it up between two e-mails, talk about it with a cab driver, read about it in a magazine in a waiting room and so on. In the end you'll carry all this little bits about a same topic in your head and put them back together to create your own vision, your own opinion. I think it's a good metaphor for my collage work, multi-source bits I collect and re-assemble to create my pictures.

Q: Can you describe to me your creative process making collage?

A: My collage work is a recent style turn around. Up until a year ago I used to do only traditional painted illustration. So the process was generally reading a text, write notes on characters and environments' physical description, sketch up, get approval from client and finalize. With the collage work it's quite different. Because the topics are more editorial this sequence doesn't really apply anymore, it's way more abstract. First I'll try to get my hands on articles or documents to define my topic. Later I might start putting aside materials or paper bits that convey a general ambiance. I'm not worried about a drawing yet. The most important ingredient is to let the info brew in my brain for a day or two. After that an image usually comes to me. Some are more obvious, others require lots of free sketching. I find cutting my sketches element into pieces helps me move them around to find the composition I really want. The sketch I show to the art director is often already a collage in itself, with different sketch bits, pencil notes and sometimes a material sample.

Q: What kind of tools do you usually use? I see you use a lot of mixed media - paper, scraps, etc.

A: Mostly re-used materials: any pieces of paper, packaging materials, newspapers bits, magazines, old yellowed books (I love old books), photographs. Glue stick, utility knife, pencil and a bit of acrylic paint here and there. Sometimes I'll pick up a scrap of metal, a piece of string, a piece of plastic or anything else that will complement my illustration..... or fit in my scanner :)

Q: It seems to me there is a big message behind each of them. What are the concepts you find you explore most often?

A: Working with symbols, in an editorial approach, does imply a form of finger-pointing. I guess if I had to identify something I denounce in my collages it would have to be Abuse. Economical abuse, consumption abuse, military abuse, political abuse, power abuse, knowledge abuse, sexual abuse, women abuse, children abuse, drug abuse, drinking abuse, food abuse. I could go on and on.

Q: What will be your next steps?

A: Not a man with a plan, remember? I guess artistically I will keep on exploring the endless possibilities of collage and mixed techniques. I would like to work on a series of larger pieces for an exhibition in Montreal. I'm also looking to join a rep in New York so I can spend more time doing my actual job, if anyone is interested.