In this blog post, I’m thrilled to introduce you to a talented photographer : Claire Rosen, she is an award-winning artist, whose work resonates with a profound sense of artistry and storytelling.

How did your upbringing affect you and your creativity? 

My creativity has its roots in my earliest childhood and the way my mother and father raised my three younger sisters and me.  My created the enabling environment that nurtured and expanded my imagination. We would spend hours at the Museum of Natural History and Metropolitan Museum of Art, celebrate Peter Rabbit and Beatrix Potter with tea parties, spend evening hours reading well worn Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and go to horticulture sketching classes in a local victorian-era glass greenhouse.  My father instilled an appreciation for the classics and an interest in philosophy, his analytical mind always focused on perfecting what he set to undertake, modeling a strong work ethic and high standards for quality. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I was building an interior vocabulary from these childhood experiences filled with surprise and delight, that later would become the language of my artistic practice. I will be eternally grateful for the gift and privilege of that childhood. 

Tell us about your first introduction to photography, What drew you into this world?

I found photography in my early years at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Photography gave me a voice and outlet for expression beyond what I found in other mediums.

What does photography mean to you?

The pursuit of art provides a path to a life enriched with unique personal experiences.  For me, a life in photography has offered the opportunity to constantly learn, meet and connect with interesting people, and explore fascinating places near and far. The process of making my hidden, interior life visible is therapeutic as I engage in a psychological examination of different concepts. Making pictures allows me to explore the world, work out how I feel about it, and find my place within it. Beyond personal experience, I hope to affect viewers – to capture someone else’s imagination and provide an escape from the everyday world—even if momentarily.  I hope to create images that are a window to a whimsical place where anything is possible.

What 3 words describe your photography style?

Whimsical, Fantastical, Abundant

How do you prepare for your projects? Do you picture beforehand in your mind the images you take?

When preparing for a project I gather inspiration and create extensive mood boards, mind maps, and sketches followed by research and a production plan.  I have outlined my whole workflow in my book, Imaginarium; The Process Behind the Photos. 

You can check Clarie’s work here: https://claire-rosen.com/

All photos by Jie Deng in the eye photography

1. When and how did you start painting? 

I remember painting, drawing and sculpting with clay from a very young age.  I have a lot of positive memories of exposure to art that feel linked to the eventual path of becoming a painter myself. 

My mother is very creative and I remember her taking me to classes at Wayne Art Center and the Philadelphia Museum of Art and I would sometimes get lost in the galleries. It was the 80s and kids wandered freely without parental supervision.  I have really good memories of that time, even if most of what I made exploded in the kiln.

My grandmother also had an incredible sense of design – her father was a gallerist and cultural critic (J.H. de Bois) in the Netherlands and she would take me local Cape Cod art galleries as a kid.  Seeing the beauty of a place expressed through art was just magical and that stayed with me. 

I remember announcing to her that one day, I would have my own gallery.  (I also told her I would be a marine biologist and a pediatrician.)  She told me, with characteristic Dutch sobering sensibility, that there were already too many art galleries on Cape Cod.

My first formal oil painting class was at Hampshire College in 2001, but at that time I was also doing a lot of photography working with a medium format camera.  

I always had a sketchbook of abstract watercolors that I would come back to, but I didn’t start to really explore abstraction with oils until I took at class with Yolanda Sanchez at Penland School of Art in 2015.  That class was a turning point for me.  Yolanda, like me, also worked in healthcare and was also a practicing artist.  

I began to see that I didn’t have to pursue only one passion.  I could practice acupuncture and painting. 

I also started to see how the practice of acupuncture and movement of qi (energy) and brushstrokes were in conversation.

2. What do you think is the most important influence in your painting?

For me painting is a space of total freedom.  It’s an expression of energetic movement and what as acupuncturists we call the Shen – heart qi – existing in that space beyond thought or the intellect.  Resting in this space during activity is so rare in our current times and that is what really excites me about the painting process.  Even if I tap into that space of consciousness for just a few moments of the painting, that is what feels most vital about the painting process.  

My wish is to convey that space to the viewer and continue exploring it in my work. It sounds very lofty but I think it shouldn’t be – I think we all have access to consciousness or a state of peace and is vital to cultivate it.  

3. Do you work from life, photographs or from imagination?

This varies but is usually a combination of imagination and the natural world.  Light and the drama of light on the landscape is something that continues to interest me.  When working indoors I may work purely from imagination or I might set up a still life of florals to spark the process.  Other times I will paint at the ocean or in my grandparent’s backyard – any part of nature that I feel a personal resonance with or want to convey. 

4. What is your creative process like?  

I typically allow a painting to evolve while I am making it and don’t have any set boundaries beyond the canvas when I begin.  I often work outdoors in warmer months, look for places where I feel inspired and set up my easel there.  

Sometimes I will get an image of part of a painting.  I’ll sketch that out to remember it and come back to it.  I find that when I am spending time in nature (particularly by the ocean) and am emptying myself of the busy-ness of daily life by taking time to meditate, do qi gong, and sometimes journal, an idea for a painting may come.  

When I’m painting during a busy week and haven’t made the time for much contemplation I just allow myself to explore by choosing a color palette, mixing color and working from there. 

5. What are you working on right now? 

Currently I’m working on several pieces – one plein air piece I began at The National Seashore in Eastham, another large abstract floral-inspired piece, and I am starting a new piece inspired by the incredible gardens at Chanticleer. 

All photos by Jie Deng In The Eye Photography

(This photo from MaryFatimah’s website)

1. What do you like most about being an artist? 

I love creating. I love making something new, and discovering new things through my work. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I have completed a project and the wonder of discovering what the piece will be as I go. 

2. Which artists influenced you?

I am terrible with names and facts. There is so much art I like from the old masters to my 4 year olds paintings. Its hard for me to pin point specific artists. I will say my background in architecture is a big factor and I love the design work of Carlo Scarpa (an Italian architect from the 1900’s). 

3. What is your daily routine when working?

It depends when I am working on, and if I have a show or fair I am working towards. I work in very different mediums, so a day could be throwing on the wheel, painting swaths of trace paper or spinning yarn, possibly all three. I also have a lot of back-end work necessary to run my business, answering emails, applying to shows, running my website, inventory, meetings ect. 

4. Where do you get your inspiration from?

I get a lot of my inspiration from nature, the colors forms and colors in nature are a constant wonder to me. I also am intrigued in our inner worlds, and how I can express that or connect with others through my work. 

5. What are you working on now? 

I am currently working on a series called internal landscapes, attempting to document feelings and movements of emotion. I am also preparing for summer and fall shows with my ceramic goods and am in production mode. 

All photos by Jie Deng In The Eye Photography

“I practice my soul and the compilation of my experiences on whatever paper or form will hold it.

To forever pursue an outward mark from an inward inkling is an accomplishment in and of itself.

It takes strength and magic and an unscratchable itch.

In the end, art is a solitary, personal and probably selfish experience, that exists intimately between the artist and the tools of the art.”—Diane Cirafesi

What do you like most about being an artist?

It seems there was never a choice in being an artist: it’s something you can’t NOT do. The gift Art brings is being able to process everything seen into some sort of image that stores itself in my psyche, and informs future work, whether consciously or subconsciously. And I kind of like that part of it: it’s a vision-driven life.

Which artist or painter influenced you?

I am influenced by most every artist that I have viewed, but tend toward those who evoke some sort of iconography, spiritual, abstract realism… I really like deKooning, Larry Rivers, Jim Dine, Picasso….anyone whose work reflects thought and purpose of mark.

What kind of creative patterns,routines or rituals do you have?

My circadian clock usually has me creating from late afternoon to late in the night.

What is the hardest part of creating a painting?

Deciding when to stop. Which can be never.

What are you working on now?
The same work I have been working on since I picked up a pencil as a child…it’s always and ever just one giant piece of work, strung together by different media.