The work selected for this exhibition offers points of time from our shared human narrative: the recent Californian fires, last week’s bedroom whispers, voices of women protesting, a farmer’s labor, the recent travel ban, love throughout time, a prayer for the shooting in Pittsburgh.… The list goes on and on.
By carving wood, forming clay, bending wire, collaging paper, and using found objects, I hope to reveal something that you already know but have never felt or considered before—someone else’s story or beauty—so that in turn you see yourself reflected. I am captivated by the subtle nuances in life, the mundane flipped upside down to reveal the poetic, what hope might look like, how a piece of artwork brings one to tears, finding joy in an object’s form, how anxiety might be a knotted ball of twine while openness and acceptance might be represented by a concave space, how art can initiate change … all of this gets woven into my art making.
I have been a working artist for over twenty-six years and a fervent observer of life for as long as I can remember. My work is an exploration of nature’s forms, distorted and perfect, found and inspired. It tells stories, helps us connect and speak about our shared fears, beauty, and struggles. In all my work, I am most concerned with staying honest to myself, to the process of creation, to my materials, and to the subject matter I choose.
Art gives us the space to reflect on who we are without words or screens. Places We’ve Been is like a salt shaker sprinkling stories on your tongue. I hope you enjoy it.
Susan Clinard
Susan Clinard is an award-winning artist who exhibits extensively. In 2007, She and her family relocated from Chicago to New Haven, where she has been the artist in residence at the Eli Whitney Museum for the past six years. Susan has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts. She has received substantial public commissions, and her sculptures can be found in many private collections worldwide.
“There is something intense yet poetic in the sensibilities of Clinard’s art work.… There is a clear luminosity to her work that is contemporary, yet incredibly timeless.… Her aesthetic places you in an artistic territory that creates a dialogue, causing viewers to stop in their tracks.”
— ART PLATFORM NYC
Brochure
Write ups:
Arts Council of Greater New Haven
Yale Daily News
The Daily Nutbeg, New Haven