CLEA CARLSEN

Artist Statement

I think my sculptures are always an attempt to express the battles that are the inevitable result of being a terribly imperfect and always deteriorating human being (especially female) in a world in which one always feels one should be better than one is.  My figures are almost always partially dressed in clothing which behaves like armor, while from another angle they are almost entirely nude, exposed.  They often have the trappings and status of royalty or divinity -- the powerful and ideal -- which serves to emphasize (by contrast with their smallness, their deformities, wounds, and various impediments) their struggle with the unavoidable human condition.  I see them as brave but vulnerable warriors who are both young and old, beautiful and ugly, feminine and masculine, hopeless and determined, wounded and blooming.

I work on a small scale for a number of reasons.  After being consistently encouraged to “work big” in college and subsequently painting for a theater where there is no choice but to work large, fast, and with little detail, I think I rebelled when I began my work in clay by doing exactly the opposite.  And, though I love art in a wide range including plenty which is large and some of which may even be nearly devoid of detail, I have always had a strong attraction to the small, the decorative, and the highly detailed.  I have been increasing the size of my sculpture because I like working a little larger and because I understand that the larger work has more impact, but I don’t expect I will ever choose to work very large.  I feel my sculptures are quietly expressive in their small size and more indicative of a woman’s experience.  And I like the idea that they can make an impression without being giant.

Biography

I was born in Santa Fe, NM in 1975.  I grew up surrounded -- by American standards, bombarded -- by the arts in all their various forms.  My mother, of Greek descent, and father, of Scandinavian descent, are both eccentric, intellectual, and artistic people.  I was thoroughly saturated with art by the time I reached college.

I went to Bard College, a liberal arts school in New York, and also spent one year at the University of New Mexico.  At both schools I took a lot of art history along with my other courses.  During my summers in college I went to Italy where I saw loads of Renaissance art which I had fallen in love with as a teen.  I went to Greece with my mother where we stayed on the island on which her father was born, and I studied art in France.  I received a BA in studio arts (painting/printmaking emphasis) from Bard College in 1998.  In 2000, I moved to Pasadena, CA, where I painted theater sets for nine years at the Pasadena Playhouse and where, as I continued to do my own work, I eventually discovered my greater affinity for clay over paint in 2008.  To further my work and career I decided to return to Santa Fe in 2009 where I currently reside and work just down the street from the house where I was born.

Please contact us for other available works

info@jsauergallery.com

The original idea was "suffocation"... as in feeling, primarily on a psychological level, unable to breathe or function because of someone or something which makes one feel tethered or tied down or maybe even just afraid. The sculpture developed and I decided in the end she was a Daphne. In the myth of Daphne and Apollo, Daphne, in her desperation to escape the pursuing Apollo, begs the gods to save her. They hear her prayer and change her into a laurel tree. In addition to the idea of the effect the overbearing can have on an individual, my interpretation (obviously not literal) is that the desire to escape one's fears can leave one ultimately immobile and trapped within the self.

Having a terrible aversion to the cold (or feeling exposed) and figuring that it is in part psychological, I imagined a figure recoiling into herself from the cold—or whatever it is which makes her feel vulnerable—who, in the same moment, knows that armor does not make the warrior and can sometimes be an impediment. And so, despite her discomfort, she puts a foot forward, in fact, a whole leg, determined her self will follow.

The title is derived from a sentence in a letter written by Freud just before having to leave Vienna permanently for London during the Nazi occupation. He says, “...we are no longer here and not yet there.” The reversal of “here” and “there” was made with the intention of making “there” encompass what we have already experienced or been and “here” what we are in the midst of experiencing and becoming.

"BODY" VIEWS 1 AND 2

"BODY" VIEWS 3 AND 4
Clea Carlsen
Porcelain on antique cast iron bill spike
8 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
$1,800

Click on IMAGES for DETAILS

BACK TO TOP