Featured Artist Theresa Clower

Artist Theresa Clower presents a breathtaking collection of mixed media sculpture created with unusual materials. See more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

My art draws inspiration from the natural world and the underlying structures that reveal themselves through time and change. As Founder and a portrait artist for the INTO LIGHT Project, creating graphite drawings that honor lives lost to addiction, I’ve developed a deeper understanding of how art can serve both personal expression and social purpose.

 

 

I’ve always been drawn to nature’s hidden frameworks—how leaves are built, how metal transforms through rust, how surfaces evolve with weather and age. These processes fascinate me because they show impermanence as a fundamental truth.

 

 

My study of the Sogetsu school of ikebana opened new possibilities in my work. This modern approach to Japanese flower arrangement taught me to work with space differently and to find strength in simplicity. Rather than filling every area with detail, I learned to let empty spaces breathe and become part of the composition. This philosophy carries over into all my pieces now—knowing when to add elements and when to hold back.

 

 

While jazz once influenced my creative rhythm more directly, lately I find myself drawn to quieter processes of observation and discovery. The meditative quality of portrait work has shifted how I approach all my art-making, encouraging patience and deeper focus on what emerges naturally.

 

 

Right now, I’m working on two distinct series. One focuses on movement—capturing the feeling of things in motion through static materials and forms. This exploration involves finding ways to suggest flow and energy in compositions that invite extended looking.

 

 

My other current series incorporates rusted metal. This work speaks to impermanence and cycles of transformation. When metal rusts, it’s dying in one sense, but it’s also becoming something new and often unexpectedly beautiful. This process mirrors larger themes about how destruction can lead to renewal, how endings can become beginnings.

 

 

I’m particularly drawn to rust because it represents time made visible. Each oxidized surface tells a story of exposure, weather, and change. These pieces aren’t about decay as an ending, but rather as part of an ongoing conversation between materials and environment. The rust becomes a collaborator, adding textures and colors I could never achieve through deliberate action alone.

 

 

My goal is to keep developing both series and see where they lead. I want to create work that makes people stop and really look, maybe notice things they hadn’t seen before. Whether it’s the delicate structure inside a leaf, the suggestion of movement in a still composition, or finding beauty in transformation and weathering, I’m interested in showing different aspects of how change happens around us.

 

 

Each piece I make is part of this larger investigation into the cycles of growth, movement, destruction, and renewal that I see everywhere in the natural world. Through both my personal work and my portraits for INTO LIGHT, I’m exploring how art can reveal hidden truths and invite deeper seeing.

 

Want to stay current on cutting edge business articles from Artsy Shark, plus artist features, and an invitation to the next Call for Artists? Click below to sign up for our twice-monthly email. You’ll get all this plus opportunities and special offers that you can’t get anywhere else!