"Love is an Artist's Most Perfect Creation!"
By Dianna Whitley
TV By Day August 1977
Any woman who is a successful actress, devoted mother, talented sculptor, accomplished horsewoman and avid reader has a problem on her hands. So far, no one has come up with a way to fit 48 hours into a day. If they do, Victoria Wyndham, who plays Rachel Cory on Another World, will be able to use the extra 24!
There are probably never enough hours in the day for anyone, but juggling time is a monumental feat in Vicky's case. One way she makes sure she has enough of it with her family is to have made their home in the country a totally private haven. However, she made an exception to her rule of never having reporters enter this world because of her one-woman sculpture show to help raise funds for the Wyomissing Institute of fine Arts in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. I drove up to her home one day to see the sculptures she will have at the show and discuss it with her.
When I arrived it was raining cats and dogs, so her chauffeur very kindly ran out to meet me with an umbrella. The housekeeper showed me through the older part of her beautifully renovated farmhouse to the contemporary wing where Victoria's studio is.
I wound my way up a circular staircase to the studio, and found Victoria at work on a piece for the show. It was an antique typesetting case, refinished and filled with stones and shells that she has collected from all over the world. As she glued the pieces in, she explained that she was arranging them vertically rather than horizontally, as the eye travels more naturally in that direction. I thought how fantastic it would be if everyone who admires a particular artist's work could speak to her personally.
Putting together a one-person show is a phenomenal undertaking for anyone, but it is almost unheard of for someone who has only been sculpting for a year. The show will have a broad range of media, styles and price. Anyone who wants to buy something will probably be able to, since the price range will be from eight dollars to three thousand dollars. It will include lithographs and sketches, as well as the 16 major sculptures made from brass, wood, bronze and "Found Objects". One of these is a collection of farm tools that were found on her property and magically turned into a whimsical bird.
Some of Victoria's work, such as Mac and Jaime, is representational, and much is abstract. There is a beautiful series of hand bent brass pieces that make up a collection called "point Three." As the stones did, these pieces work both independently and together. They are all based on variations and adaptations of triangles, which is a theme that runs through much of Victoria's work. She explained that she has always been fascinated by triangles and the way that many things could be seen in terms of them.
As she showed me different pieces, she pointed out the influences of Rodin, Calder, Moore and many others. "Art is derivative. We are all products of history, and if you are an artist, you are a product of art history," she said.
Showing me a beautiful bronze piece of intertwined hands, which she has named "Marriage," she explained the background. "I get a certain amount of pleasure in testing myself and seeing what my limits are. I enjoy trying things that are a challenge. That's partly where the hands came from. As a young person, I always had trouble drawing hands. But I don't like to think there is anything in the arts that I can't do, so I kept trying. I think that hands are as expressive as faces and tell a lot about a person. Consequently, I got very goo at drawing hands." People on the cast often say they can always tell her scripts because she's drawn hands all over them! "I decided that I should do a sculpture incorporating one of the poses I had been working on." Victoria continued.
Turning to sculpting on the show, Victoria had this to say, "Mac married Rachel with the desire to have a Pygmalian influence in her life, and it turned her into what he knew she could be-a secure person and a wonderful wife and mother. He did that, but he also exposed her to things she had never been exposed to before, including the art world. When she began sculpting, he encouraged her, but he probably wouldn't have if he had known it would turn into a vocation. Hobbies were fine in his way of thinking, but a vocation was another thing, since he saw that as taking something away from him. He felt he had to be the center and focus of her whole life, and when he found he no longer was, he felt she loved him less, even though that wasn't true. She was spending less time with him, but that didn't mean she loved him less. Love is an artist most perfect creation. Unfortunately, Mac didn't see it that way.
"Mac married Rachel at a time when all she wanted out of life was to make him happy. She had no interests outside of her husband and child at the beginning. When she was fulfilled by that, and had the security of a love relationship, she had the freedom to find other interests. Before that she'd never had the time or energy to pursue other facets of herself as an individual, because she hadn't fulfilled the biggest need that any of us have, whish is love. Once she has that, she discovered other aspects of herself.
"Everyone needs someone to love them, and when you have that, you can go on to other things, because you have the security of that relationship always with you."
It's a formula that certainly works well for Victoria. Whether discussing her love for her children and the books she recently wrote for them, her passion for the outdoors, and for her artistic pursuits, or the one-woman exhibit, she is absolutely radiant and full of appreciation for life. And the life she has created for herself is as impressive as her beautiful sculptures.