The grand-daughter of a talented blacksmith artist, Vicki Sullivan was born to create. All her life, she dabbled in drawing, pastels, water colour and acrylic painting, clay modelling, bone-carving and even glass-blowing. While she made strides and her skills grew, none of these lit her heart on fire in a lasting way. Then one fall evening a friend introduced her to the artform known as needle-felting.

It was a life changing moment.

There’s something extraordinary about working with wool- how it carries light, it’s clearly perceptible texture, how it can be worked to look flat or have a sculpted effect. Perhaps it’s best feature is how forgiving it is, allowing the artist to experiment in the foreground with very little risk to marring the background. All these characteristics are ideal for maximizing Vicki’s frequent themes of natural beauty, movement and vibrant colour.  Her work often depicts oceans, animals, flowers and mountains in bas-relief style (semi-3D), showcased with the sheen of silk and viscose and the texture of thread, yarn, ribbon and other textile embellishments. Discovering the limits of such a versatile artform continues to be a joyous adventure for this Canadian artist.

Vicki lives on a small hobby farm in central Alberta with her husband, young daughter and two sons who are closer to being men than children. When the summer sun shines, she can be found with her feet in the soil and her mind in the clouds. Gardening and needle-felting are enduring passions, but her family and her faith are the true bedrock of her life.

In her youth, Vicki used to surf, snowboard, cliff jump, bungy jump, skydive, and spin fire, but now she pours that adventurous spirit into her art business; constantly exploring new and inventive ways to use fibre to create beauty. She has lived and worked in Australia, England, and Ireland, and also soaked in the sights and experiences of Fiji, Scotland, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Greece and Hawaii.  You’ll see hints of her love of travel and the sea sprinkled through her work.