Interview with Founder / Designer VIENNE REA

The Team caught up with VIENNE and asked about her distinctive designs with their readily noticeable contemporary styling and captivating meanings.

Q: VIENNE, you’re an artist, photographer, sculptor, and jewelry designer. All of your work is theme-based and while your photography is multi-themed, your sculpture and your jewelry line, THE LOVE LADDERS, have a singular theme of ladders. Can you tell us why?

A: Actually, I became a sculptor because I received the image of a ladder in a dream. I’m an expressionist through and through, so I speak from the heart, and I like to speak to the heart with my art. After the dream, I realized how ladders, as a symbol, could be used in a multitude of ways to convey aspects of life’s experiences. Each design comes forth when I imagine how stories, from my life and loved ones', can be expressed through the use of the theme of ladders. It seemed like it was the next step [she laughs at the pun] for me to go from sculpting ladders to designing ladders as sculptural, wearable art.

Q: Ladders, as you mentioned can be symbols, often for such things as ascent or success. How do such concepts translate into the design and ethos of THE LOVE LADDERS?

A: Love is a universal language, and we can all connect with that. Love is meant to be the basis of our actions and the source of our thoughts. Ladders, especially when combined with messages of Love, can become a symbol of more than just ascending or success. In THE LOVE LADDERS collection, there are dozens of examples of jewelry pieces and curios [small-scale sculptures, which she likes to call ‘curiosities’] that conceptualize a broad variety of universal experiences. My vision is that they will become recognized for the love-based interpretations that allow people to experience the miracle of their life stories becoming love stories.

Q: Can you describe a particular piece from your collection that you feel embodies the core message of THE LOVE LADDERS?

A:  Firstly—and this won’t be a copout answer—I have to say that all of them embody the core message of THE LOVE LADDERS, and secondly, I wouldn’t have produced them if they didn’t. [Laughs] Now, let me answer your question the way you intended it. ‘RETURN TO LOVE’ is both a pendant as well as a curio piece, and it is also kinetic, whereby two ladders have been connected to allow it to stay open so that it can stand on its own, or when it is closed together it appears as one ladder. There’s so much to unpack from that description alone. But, from the more obvious, basic interpretation—it represents our ambition to climb, our ability to rise, and at times we may fall or fail— a sort of “what goes up must come down” narrative. This piece is also a great symbol for compassion. Intention brings beings together and it fosters community— like Habitat for Humanity, for example. [See the Giving Back list on THE LOVE LADDERS website.] This piece is about the process of waking up from the dream. Our primary function is not about the pursuit of worldly success and reaching the top, or the attainment of goals. It can be enticing for us to believe that this is the way to attain happiness and lasting peace. Rather than allowing ourselves to be limited by our ideas about ourselves and the world around us we can shift from our worldly sources. Instead, as we mount and climb the ladder towards awakening, we learn how giving is receiving, we see through the eyes of love, we hear the calls for love, and discover how forgiveness is the alternate choice that fosters peace and happiness. As we grasp these rungs of realization, one by one, and awaken or metaphorically reach the summit, here is where we discover the second ladder. We were never meant to stay at the top and wait for others to arrive. Our function is to live in love, as love. We return repeatedly, carrying the message, while sharing the way with others. Hence, the multiple-entendre title: ‘Return to Love’.

Q: What do you want your collectors [a term of reference she prefers rather than ‘customers’] to feel or think when they wear pieces of the jewelry or display the curios from THE LOVE LADDERS Collection?

A: Jewelry is the most ancient decorative art form; archeologists and historians have documented bodily adornment as old as 150,000 years. I read an article in which one researcher stated that ornaments worn as jewels were the very first expression of the human soul and the oldest art form. That summed it all up for me. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m an expressionist so understanding jewelry as ornamentation for the soul isn’t a difficult concept. I think those who wear and collect my designs will relate to them at a sincere and lasting level because soulful expression has powerful resonance.