Featured Artist Clare Rosean

I use my drawings and paintings as a means by which I can plot the absurdities of human folly and crises from an outsider’s perspective.  Each piece can be read as a map on its own, or within a larger narrative, of not only space and the everyday events and people that fill space, but of the individual and his place in the bigger picture.

My maps chart the landscape of the everyday: the ubiquity of pop and consumer culture, i.e. the seen, along with one’s individual secrets and feelings, namely the unseen.  I intend my work to be lighthearted, humorous, and visually appealing for the viewing pleasure of the audience.

I very much want to create something intriguing and entertaining for both artists and non artists as well, enabling the viewer to step outside himself, and put himself in the world as a piece in a cartoon puzzle, an element amongst the day to day humdrum and calamity; stand back and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It is my desire that my work be physically and mentally accessible to an indefinite audience.  The subject matter is relatable to all: our neighborhoods, cars, offices, parks and passersby constitute the imagery that makes up my work, rendered with the utmost care.  I revel in the detail I apply to my imagery because it is the fullest way I can express my love for the ugly and the beautiful, the trivial and the momentous facets of life.

The usage of ballpoint pen is deliberate, for its commonality and the texture it provides.  I believe it enhances the art’s accessibility to a wider, non-artistic audience.  As for being physically accessible, I plan on producing picture books for all ages from each series of my drawings and paintings.  This would offer the public the opportunity to obtain art easily, and view it intimately.

Besides the aforementioned influence of the everyday, I have borrowed concepts from a number of artistic sources.  Most, if not all, of my work employs a concept of space particular to Indian miniature painting, Chinese landscapes of the Southern Song dynasty, Japanese woodblock prints, and to some extent Dr. Seuss’s illustrations, whereby multiple perspectives are juxtaposed against one another, eliminating hierarchy and leveling all events on an equal plane.  Distance is for the most part distorted, yet not entirely discarded.  Equal attention is paid to each portion of the painting, owing to the fact that each event holds equal significance and should be examined with equal scrutiny.

Bio: I am a Chicago native, and an undergraduate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Besides making fine art, I sell cards and stationery that feature my drawings through my personal site, www.clarerosean.com, and my etsy site: www.clarerosean.etsy.com, as well as several retailers in the Chicago area.