Project Woman, Bra Vo and Blossom Small

Project Woman. This is an idea that has been bubbling around in Claire's head for a good few years now. She wanted to start it when she could devote her time to it and the image of what she wants to create is clear. She still hasn't worked it out exactly, but she guesses thats the beauty of art, its a journey. The time feels right for her now as she had a radical hysterectomy in 2019 and she has felt like her identity has been lost along with her memory and she hopes to embark on this new chapter of her life with courage and excitement. So Project Woman is born...she wants to learn about women, woman and herself...

 

Project Woman is an embroidery project which may end up as a huge piece of art in the stye of the Bayeaux Tapestry #ambitious or lots of smaller pieces #morelikely which will combine into an exhibition with possible off shoots...

 

Embroidery can be seen as a tool for domesticity or maybe womens work? Claire hopes to subvert this by stitching the greatest women of all time, in her opinion of course. By creating them in textiles she hopes to elevate both textiles as an art form and the women she stitches. Hopefully, she would like to dispel the image of domestic emancipation and uplift stitch into the art form it is.

 

She hopes to document womens achievements which have been overlooked or wiped from the anals of history, like a stitched visual encyclopeia of fabulousness of these perhaps unsung heroines. This is not only about famous/infamous women, this is about you and Claire. If you would like Claire to stitch you and tell your story get in touch. We are all heroines. Or if you want to add a woman to her huge list let Claire know. 

 

It is her intention to pay homage to, highlight, elevate and celebrate these women. She will also be trying to incorporate looking into female issues along her journey including the menopause, periods, dieting, motherhood and so much more. 

She is no expert in any of this and nor will she be claiming to be, her aim is to document whilst educating herself by researching women and the issues she will be looking at. 

 

Claire explores this dialogue through her embroidery and artwork. She is fascinated by women and their journey through life and explores them through their stories true, perceived and otherwise.

Alongside this she has the Bra series which also looks at women in history, how they are viewed and presented to the masses. This series is stitched on to bras and begun with Emily Davison and Millicent Fawcett Courage bra. Another series is about childhood trauma and here she has Blossom Small and she is rescued and taught about courage and hope through the eyes of the adult she has now become.

Claire is an award winning British textile artist and has recently been featured on the BBC2 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Show.  Her work is held in collections in Europe, Australia and the USA.

Claire has fire in her thread and seed stitch is her weapon of choice. She uses her maverick application of this stitch to challenge perceptions, and to make us laugh along the way. 

Claire trained as graphic designer and the influence of this is clear in her work. 

She is fascintated by visual communication, and asks how do we say what we want to say and how is that message received.

Claire likes to leave her work with an open narrative, inviting the viewer to bring their own story to the piece.

She has several ongoing series of art:

Project Woman - Portraits of women throughout history or 'herstory'

Welcome to the Moneypause - Here Claire takes a subversive look at the hormonal journey of women and the twists and turns along the way. 

The Moneypause Pharmacy - A tongue in cheek look at products for menopausal women. 

Trauma Tales - A look into multi generational trauma and its effects.

Polaroid Pop - Stitched polaroids with a twist

Typopgraphy -Typography with a POP! Words are her weapon 

Claire has many other projects which are ongoing. 

Art for Claire is like breathing ... necessary!

She continues to explore the fascinating journey through life using her needle and thread to discuss these topics. The use of stitch helps Claire to truly connect to her subjects and become immersed for over 150 hours per piece in their story and dialogue. For centuries embroidery has been seen as women’s work and Claire continues to challenge this perception by using embroidery as the language of love, story telling and freedom and to elevate to its true place of art.