Clare Benson is a contemporary artist based in Arizona who grew up in Michigan. Benson’s work explores rural landscapes, hunting, and identity. We chose to speak with Benson because we felt her work, post election, showed a unique perspective into rural America through exploring gender roles, our relationships with the land, and climate change. Benson…
An NCECA 2017 Exhibition at Antler Gallery Neo Cali Clay Collective Opening Reception: Thursday, March 23rd 5pm-9pm Antler Gallery. 2728 NE Alberta St. Portland, OR. This month will see the NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) 2017 conference visit Portland and Antler Gallery is honored to have been selected as an official…
What was it like studying in Italy? Italy was a very eye opening experience for me. I immersed myself in the culture and the language. Everything was inspiring and creatively I had a new way of seeing the world. Italy was where I encountered machine knitting. Learning this technique in Italian was definitely a challenge…
When I look at your work, I see of glimpses of intimacy — at times they are absurd or cause discomfort, but the intention is earnest. What do you want your work to do, to evoke in a viewer or participant? My partner once looked at my work and told me he thought my work…
Is embroidery a skill you learned as a child, or something you developed later on? My mother taught me to sew when I was a little girl, just simple stitching, and it was something I’ve always done. I never had any formal training. I don’t use proper stitches. I don’t use techniques that have a…
Tell me a bit about where you grew up & what your upbringing was like. I grew up just east of Toronto, Ontario in Canada. My family and I lived further away from town on one of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario, so I had a kind of remote and scenic upbringing. My father is…
Hiba Schahbaz is a Brooklyn-based artist who works in the centuries-old art form of miniature painting. She trained in miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan and received an MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute in New York City. Schahbaz, a Muslim woman of color, speaks critically and poetically about western…
JH: How would you describe your subject matter or the content of your art practice? SL: I’m interested in the overlap of the body and the home space, which stems from a fascination with permeable and blurred boundaries. I see a lot of similarities between the body and the home as containers, facades and places…
How did you realize or notice that you were an artist? Much of my work is performative, through writing and composition of texts, plays, and songs. I was crafting these at a young age. In college, I was more interested in film and photography, but I was always writing and performing my words. After starting…
Your background is in photography, it was what you were focusing on when we were in the MFA program together at SF State University. How did you first get into making drawings? I know that’s what it seems like, because both my BFA and MFA are in photography, but I have been drawing since I…
