Claire Dunn
Artist, psychologist and Argentine traveler. She currently resides and works in Buenos Aires.
MY ARTISTIC SEARCH
I am interested in the human being and his connection with the divine through nature, our essence, our center, the most primitive part of ourselves. My studies in the field of psychology have enriched my exploration of the relationship between human beings and art.
I am interested in experiencing existence on all planes, artistic expression is a way to connect with many realities and it is also a way to understand and process the wonders of this world and experiences. Throughout many years, I did different workshops related to spirituality and mysticism. I constantly work in my inner world, which leads me to a feeling of freedom and expansion. I have traveled all over the world alone, especially in nature, which has opened new doors for me. I like extreme adventures, with my backpack and my tent in the middle of nature. That inspires me, fills me with life, creativity at its best. Also, knowing other cultures and connecting with ancestral wisdoms gave me a deeper way of looking at my surroundings, which allowed me to connect with different sensations that are manifested in my artistic practice. My feet bloom when I walk through mountains, forests, deserts, rivers, lakes, jungles ... In art I seek to explore the relationship between spiritualizing matter and materializing the spiritual. I am interested in the study of the junction points between heaven and earth, heavy and dense matter with lightness and ethereal, light and darkness, movement and stillness. The silence and the sound. My body translates ethereal concepts into concrete reality.
In my creative process, I let my unconscious and my intuition rule my body to make art. Each work I do is a journey, a process, and an invitation to the viewer to open up to other worlds. Art as a means of travel within our soul and the cosmos. Everything happens in the process. The final work is only the result of one or many experiences that happened. An evidence or trace of a trip. When I start a work, I generally go forward without knowing where I am going or how it will end. Sometimes they start from a dream. I don't have a finished image in mind, just some outlines, atmospheres, sensations, or clues. I try to achieve in the work that sensation that I felt in my body. That the work captures and transmits feelings but above all, that it takes us on adventures.
Contact:
web page: www.clairedunn.org
instagram: @clairedunn____
mail: cdunn96@icloud.com
MY PANDEMIC EXPERIENCE IN ART
The pandemic was a creative boom for me. I dared to immerse myself in the waters of my unconscious, also navigating unknown processes in art. I got into experimentation and play, accompanied by a lot of introspection. Art helps me break down barriers and fears, and discover new worlds.
During the pandemic, a new series called "Union between heaven and earth" emerged. This is an exploration I did in my garden during the quarantine of 2020. I put canvases outside on rainy days and painted while it was raining. After every coat of paint and rain (I like to call it a rain session), the canvases were left in the open air for a few days. In the next rain he would take them out again to receive the intervention of heaven. Each canvas has many rain sessions. Symbolically, the sky left its mark on the earth. The rain makes a beautiful performance on the canvas. The heaviness of the water droplets and the impact they have on the canvas when they fall is very interesting to observe. Every rainy day is different in intensity. There is a union between polarities.
In this period I also began to discover the world of performance. I practice art as a ritual. Every job I do is a journey and an invitation to the viewer to open up to other worlds. I am very interested in caves and what happens inside them. My workshop is shaped like a cave, and I spent the entire pandemic in there. In my quarantine I painted my entire cave with my hands, it has many layers of paint, remains of experiences. The cave paintings in my cave. Art is a means to travel within our soul. Dance, writing, singing, performance and embroidery feed my work and participate in the creative process. For me the creative process is the most important thing. Everything happens in the process. The final work is just the result of one or many experiences that happened. An evidence or trace of a trip.
I think that during the pandemic many people slowed down a little bit in what they had been going, going back to the present and reflecting on themselves and the world around us. I was able to observe how many people revalued the “simple”, realizing what really matters. Also, how important it is to care for our environment, our home, our source, and our connection with it is what keeps us in balance. Art played a very important role during the pandemic, artistic expression in all its mediums is something very healing for the human being.