Artist Statement
I create small-scale work on paper that responds to the fragility of our environment and the crucial relationships we have with botanical life. I collect and gather elements of native, exotic, and invasive plants collected during nature hikes and garden explorations. I then print and weave them into intimate abstract drawings and mixed media collages. Responding to each piece individually, I add color when necessary with various types of pigments and methods. I enjoy playing with the shapes and textures of leaves, grasses, and flowers. Working intuitively and intentionally, I explore ways to express my connection with the plants around me and the importance of stewardship to the earth.
My bond with nature began in childhood with time playing in the woods and helping my grandmother in her flower gardens. These experiences fostered an appreciation of the coexisting relationship between plants and humans, which is now the focus of my practice. I seek to start a conversation around nature: what we plant is consequential. Native, exotic, and invasive plants compete for the same space, and inappropriate competition among plants adversely affects living organisms in their immediate environment and beyond. My goal is to encourage dialogue about how to protect native plants from the intrusion of invasive plants. The health of our planet depends in part on this awareness.
Biography
Emily Clare (b. 1954, Cookeville, Tennessee) creates small-scale art that encourages dialogue about the fragility of our environment and the opportunities we have to protect our native plant species from the intrusion of invasive species. Her inspirations come from collecting elements of native, exotic, and invasive plants during nature hikes which she prints and weaves into intimate abstract drawings, mixed media, and collages. Clare majored in fine art at Vanderbilt/George Peabody College, Nashville, TN, and the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC. The artist has participated in exhibitions at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA, Turchin Center for the Arts, curated by Stephen Matijcio, Boone, NC; Viridian Artists Contemporary Art Gallery, curated by Elisabeth Sussman, New York; 26th Annual Exhibition of Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; Durham Art Guild, curated by Irving Sandler, Durham, NC; Anuszkiewicz Show and Selects, curated by Richard Anuszkiewicz, Spoleto, Charleston, SC; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Central South Art Exhibition, curated by Irving Shapiro and Lamar Dodd, Nashville, TN. In 2019, Clare had two solo shows, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, curated by Wendy Earle, Winston Salem, NC, and the Sechrest Gallery of Art at High Point University, High Point, NC. She is in corporate and private collections. Clare currently lives and works in North Carolina.
