Clinard Sculpture Studio
14 Gilbert St., Unit M207
West Haven, CT 06516-1639
USA
Phone: + 1 (312) 375-7018
Phone: + 1 (203) 435-7304
Email: susan@clinard.org
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Susan
Clinard Clinard Sculpture Studio 14 Gilbert St., Unit M207 West Haven, CT 06516-1639 USA Phone: + 1 (312) 375-7018 Phone: + 1 (203) 435-7304 Email: susan@clinard.org |
Susan Clinard began her sculptural studies as an apprentice at the age of nineteen. She continued her fine arts education at the University of Michigan where she also pursued her interest in Cultural Anthropology. Her strong interest in the social sciences brought her to Chicago in 1994 where she began her career as a social worker with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. She worked exclusively in child and family welfare. During these emotionally trying years, Susan kept sculpting intensively. She collaborated with various fine art studios throughout Chicago, worked on several monuments and established strong working relationships with fine art foundries. It is at this time that Susan first understood that sculpture was the unquestionable voice, which would allow her to be true to herself while also giving back to her community.
Clinard's sculptures express her strong affinity with Nature and her genuine love for all human beings. Whether she is sculpting from models or using memories from her diverse background, she uses Nature's raw forms to narrate the struggles and joys of her subjects. Susan often finds beauty and truth in life's most challenging times. Her passionate observation of the human body and of its distortion by life has given her a profound knowledge of human nature. Together with her extensive sculpting skills, it enables her to capture the individuality of her subjects and to create sculptures that express strong and vital emotions.
In addition to her figurative work for which she has been awarded scores of commissions, Susan Clinard began experimenting with waxes, found wood, and textile eight years ago. Inspired from her puppetry theatre work, she incorporated mixed media to her ceramic and stone sculptures. The strongest work evolving from this discovery period are her found wood and ceramic sculptures. Susan finds weathered wood with organic flowing curves and sees the human form within it. The ceramic heads and hands are added to the wood, illustrating the metamorphosis from one organic life form to another. She also uses clear and brown waxes to soften contours and add fluidity to the form. The wax's transparency glows and mutes the sculptural surface, giving the figures an almost dream-like quality.
She tought stone carving at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and figurative sculpture at the Palette and Chisel Academy and at Gallery 37 (an award winning arts education organization). She has conducted demonstrations and workshops at the Musée Pierre Gianadda in Switzerland, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum, Lizzadro Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
After twelve years in Chicago she is relocating her studio in West Haven, Connecticut.
ARTIST STATEMENT
When I sculpt a dialogue is created between personal and global realities and a direct fire that responds to these concerns; that fire is transmitted from the heart to the hand to the material to the composition to the public. Wood, clay, wire and thread find themselves in harmony and opposition to create tensions and breath that are shared in both materials and our human condition; that these materials become a vibrating, unified composition in the end is truth that humanity is connected despite and in celebration of our similarities and differences.
The studio environment provides a sanctuary for my lived experiences. It is literally and figuratively, a personal space where ideas cannot be touched, weighted, seen, or counted. A mutual dance of surrendering and exertion in this atmosphere guides me to find hidden realities in materials, gestures and their placement in space; my work is found rather than sought. These sculptural puzzles are distorted and abstracted as I work within the spectrum of personal and shared consciousness. The puzzle, the abstraction frees the eye and heart so that we can know clearly what is common between us all; these manifestations of sculpture are ugly, menacing, graceful, playful and numbing.
The composition itself is the final playing field where I work to integrate and balance the above mentioned ideas and materials. If we look wholeheartedly we find the whole; the whole world, the whole human, the whole lived experience. We cannot have the joy without the suffering. I am a tight rope walker finding balance in an open space, tools in my right hand, heart in my left and extending outward from my core.
| CAREER | ||
| Present | Professional
Sculptor. Clinard Sculpture Studio,
West Haven, CT. Monumental, figurative, and portrait commissions. Stone, Clay, Bronze, and Wood | |
| 2002-2006 | Professional
Sculptor. Clinard Sculpture Studio,
Chicago, IL. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Stone Carving Instructor. Palette and Chisel Academy for the Fine Arts. Sculpture instructor. Gallery 37. Art instructor. |
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| 2001-1998 | Palette
and Chisel Academy for the Fine Arts.
Sculpture instructor Gallery 37. Award winning arts education institution. Stone carving instructor Large-scale puppet instructor City of Chicago's Halloween Parade Monument modeling and casting at Rotblatt-Amrany Studio. Redmoon Theater. Designer for All Hallow's Eve Ritual Celebration Olé Olé Puppet and Dance Theater. Co-founder / Set Designer |
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| 1997-1994 | Ulich
Children's Home. D.C.F.S., Chicago IL. Figurative Sculpture. Clinard Sculpture Studio, Chicago IL. | |
| 1993-1991 | Sage Art Center. Two-year apprenticeship with monument sculptor. | |
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| EDUCATION | ||
| 1995-1993 | The University of Michigan. B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Sculpture | |
| 1993-1991 | Hillsdale College. Fine Arts Concentration | |
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| DEMONSTRATIONS / WORKSHOPS | ||
| 2004 | National
Center on Poverty Law Health and Medicine Policy Research Group 4Arts Inc. Gallery, Chicago, IL |
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| 2003-2000 | WGN
Morning News. Channel 9. 4/28 and 5/15/2003 The Art Institute of Chicago Museum (annualy) Foundation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, Switzerland Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Blue Note Ball (annually) Barrington Junior Women's League. Rotary Club, The Museum of Science and Industry Dearborn Garden Walk (annually) St Peter and Paul School benefit |
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| 1993-1991 | Lizzaro
Museum, Elmhurst, IL Alabaster Chicago Latino Arts Festival. Shadow puppet workshoap Around the Coyote Arts Festival. Galeria Diez y Ocho. Pilsen East Arts Festival. Chicago Public Schools. Guest sculpture instructor at several CPS |
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| PUBLICATIONS ABOUT THE ARTIST | ||
| 2005-2000 |
Life by Design Magazine, 4/07 Kalamazoo Gazette, 10/05 Chicago Home and Garden Magazine 4/05 Ponte Vedra Recorder. 3/04 Today's Chicago Woman Magazine. Woman About Town 8/03 The Collegian. 4/03 Fine Arts Ceramics. 2/02 feature article. Sculpture Journal 11/02 feature article The Chicago Tribune 9/2/02 On the Job The Chicago Reader 12/1/99, 9/5/01, 2/28/03 The Art Institute of Chicago News and Events Magazine 5/02 New York Times Magazine 6/00 Chicago Magazine 6/00 | |
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| PRIVATE/PUBLIC COMMISSIONS & COLLECTIONS | ||
Carnegie Foundation, New York, NY |
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| EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2007 |
Marsh Botanical Garden at Yale University, New Haven, CT Michael Zschoche Gallery, Newport Beach, CA Johnsonese Gallery, Chicago, IL The Gallery at Hawthorne, Overland Park, KS Art on the Avenue, Greenwich, CT Small Space Gallery, New Haven, CT Clinard Sculpture Studio, West Haven, CT Richard Mark Gallery, Lake Forest, IL |
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| 2006 |
Madron Gallery of American Art, Chicago, IL Best of Show Award 4 Arts Gallery, Chicago, IL Parts Unknown Gallery, Chicago, IL Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, Chicago, IL Ruth Page Dance Theater, Chicago, IL Clinard Sculpture Studio, Chicago, IL Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL Lake Forest Academy, Lake Forest, IL |
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| 2005 |
BigTown Gallery, Burlington, VT Richard Mark Gallery, Lakeforest, IL ALmquist Gallery, Winnettka, IL Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL 4 Arts Gallery, Chicago, IL Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, Chcaigo, IL |
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| 2004 | Johnsonese
Gallery, Chicago IL Phoenix Gallery, MI Acme Artist's Coop Gallery, Chicago, IL 4Arts Inc. Gallery, Chicago, IL The Cultural Center at PVB, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL Centerspace Gallery, Chicago, IL Palette and Chisel Gallery, Chicago, IL Fairfax Gallery, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL Springman Gallery, Chicago, IL |
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| 2003 | Columbia
College Dance Center, Chicago IL One Woman Show, Clinard Sculpture Studio, Chicago IL, 05/2003 Political Library, Concord, NH Hilsdale College, Hilsdale MI |
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| 2002 | Art
Institute of Chicago. Richard and Ellen Sander Gallery. Chicago, IL Vittum Theatre Gallery, Chicago, IL Adagio Fine Art Gallery, Oregon, IL Gallery 37 Cultural Center for the Arts, Chicago IL Dr. Scholls Gallery, Chicago,IL. Best of Show Award Collage Gallery, Chicago IL Chicago House Gallery, Chicago IL |
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| 2001 | Elmhurst
Art Museum, Elmhurst IL Harold Washington Public Library, Chicago IL St. Louis Artist Guild, St. Louis, MO Palette and Chisel Academy, Chicago IL. Best of Show Award Dr. Scholls Gallery, Chicago IL 1st Place award Sanctuary Gallery, Chicago IL Bic's Gallery, Chicago IL Gallery 37, Chicago IL |
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| 2000 | New
Hampton Public Library, New Hampton, MS. National Monument Finalist Palette and Chisel Academy, Chicago IL Maravilla Hall, Lincolnshire IL Sanctuary Gallery, Chicago IL Settlement House Gallery, Chicago IL |
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| 1999 | Monolith
Fine Arts, Chicago IL Pilsen East Art Expo, Chicago IL Rotblatt-Amrany Gallery, Highland Park IL Ziggurat Studio, Chicago IL Bic's Gallery, Chicago IL Palette and Chisel Academy, Chicago IL. Harriet Brittery Show 1st Pl. Award |
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© Susan Clinard 2001-2007. All rights reserved.