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Women.com presents

Artist Sarah Lugg
Victoria magazine's 1999 artist in residence

July 20, 1999

Victoria magazine's 1999 artist in residence, Sarah Lugg, is here with us today. Lugg is a British artist who works in mixed media. She is a regular exhibitor in America at Artexpo and Accent on Design, where her shows are always a sellout.

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HomeArts: Welcome to Victoria magazine's chat with their 1999 artist in residence, Sarah Lugg. Lugg is a British artist who works in mixed media. She is a regular exhibitor in America at Artexpo and Accent on Design, where her shows are always a sellout. Following on from her success in America, her work has been published in the form of boxed sets of art cards, journals, a range of fine art prints and a collection of exquisite wired edged ribbons. May 1999 will see the launch of a large range of Sarah Lugg stationery. Welcome, Sarah!

Sarah Lugg: Hi! Thanks for tuning in to the "chatline." I welcome any questions.

Artfan: You use a lot of buttons in your work. Do you have a favorite type of button, or period in button fashion that you look for?

Sarah Lugg: My favorite buttons are those made from mother-of-pearl. My most favorite out of those are the ones that have come from my grandmother's collection. And then going on from that probably the Victorian metal and glass buttons. I'm just always on the lookout for new and interesting shapes, and often the best finds are to be found in junk stores, the ones that are fallen out of boxes and down the chest of drawers, those that are sort of lurking in the corner, forgotten, waiting to be discovered.

Samsmom: Are there certain colors, fabrics, and materials you like to work with?

Sarah Lugg: God, that's a pretty wide subject! (smiling) With papers, I prefer to use handmade papers, and with fabrics my favorite ones are the vintage fabrics, which are slightly faded and a bit frayed about the edges. Colors, oooh, I go through phases and at the moment, probably because it is summertime, my favorite colors are pale blues and bleached, natural, faded creams, and sand and taupe with an accent of gold.

Llgott: What was your inspiration for your art work, and when did you first start the art work with nature?

Sarah Lugg: Well, I've always been working with natural found objects since a small child. I've always been collecting. And the tag collages I have been working with for the last, I'd say, 12 or 15 years, they've just evolved with time. But it's an interesting question that people often ask me, how long I've been working with natural objects, as it's something I have done so instinctively that I can't remember when there was a specific point in time that I started. I think the fact that growing up in the English countryside and being surrounded by such a beautiful environment obviously had a great effect on me from the very beginning.

Victoriareader: What is your fascination with labels?

Sarah Lugg: Oh, my fascination with labels is, I use the labels as a vehicle to display objects from my collection, and the tags isolate and draw one's attention to the individual beauty of each object used within the collages. I think it's the fact that I'm using the tags, which are quite a commonplace object, and the objects in nature, which are things that we take for granted - they have that in common.

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