Dreams of the Divine
Within Claire Weaver-Zeman’s mind is a landscape of divine creatures and figures who frequent dreams and the imagination. In the Swampscott, Massachusetts native’s lush and abundant canvases, stories blossom and break out of confines of color and sometimes even stenciled line. Weaver-Zeman’s intricate mythologies are nourished by true tales of excavations and archeological discoveries, though the beings that wander the artist’s brain are conceived with backstories entirely their own. Claire Weaver-Zeman allows each myth to evolve effortlessly, embracing change, and transition in narratives which often step out frame to comfort or confront the viewer. In the landscape of the artist’s mind and work, divine beings roam freely about, in journeys never without discomfort, but always in the direction of growth.
Part One: Who is Claire Weaver-Zeman?
Question #1: Who are you?
I am an artist based on the coast of Massachusetts, just north of Boston. I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2018 with a degree in painting. After I graduated, I spent the summer at the Chautauqua School of Art, where I had a residency with many other artists, musicians, and dancers from around the country. Currently I am working part time, saving money to move to New York, and sharing an attic studio with my mom who is also an artist. My whole family has been working from home since the pandemic started, and we are all just trying to support each other through this strange time. I really enjoy curating exhibitions and hope to do more of that once the pandemic has calmed down a bit. Recently I put together two shows, Community Ties at Machines with Magnets, and Ritual Mania, at the Drawing Room in Providence.
Question #2: Who are you as an artist?
As an artist I am very interested in mythology and narrative, especially goddesses and composite creatures. I am drawn to narratives that address transformation and growth and my visual ideas come from books, movies, mythology and my own life. I draw from the stories I watch, hear, and see and am interested in how ancient symbols and ideas manifest in our contemporary culture.
Question #3: In terms of your artistic journey, why are you here and where are you going?
I am here because I have always loved making things. I hope to be heading in a direction that helps me expand my artistic community and explore new ideas. One of my goals right now is to move to New York City to reconnect with friends I know from school and met at Chautauqua, and make new friends to grow my community. I am really looking forward to meeting new people, and fortunately have been able to stay in touch with old friends through Facebook chats and zoom reunions.
Question #4: What do you absolutely need your audience to know about you or your work?
I need my audience to know that I am fascinated by archeology. I love watching Time Team, a British archeology program where a group of archeologists only have three days to do an excavation. I adore seeing the process of how the archeologists and historians figure out a site- from the geophysics to the datable evidence and am always intrigued by the exciting mysteries that are solved by the end of each show. My work is connected to ancient myths, rituals, and stories, and the piecing together and making sense of those stories is something I explore in my work.
Question #5: What has the process of making art taught you or given you?
The process of art making has taught me to stay flexible and to listen. Critique is something I valued in school, with its flood of ideas and methods to try out. Luckily, I still have some people I can share work with and bounce ideas off of.
Question #7: What keeps you going?
Looking at art is something that really keeps me going and inspired. Reading or watching TV programs about history, archeology and mythology always inspires me and I recently read a book about the history of the color red by Michel Pastoureau, which was really fantastic. Trying new things in my practice also keeps me going. My practice is constantly evolving. Right now, I have been looking at Durer etchings, which has pushed me to draw more than I have in a while, and make larger, more detailed pencil sketches. Stencils appear in my work a bit less than they used to, and I am more interested in playing with scale to create distance or a kind of “hierarchy of scale” to emphasize the fact that some figures and more important goddesses or monsters and some figures are minor players in the narrative.
Part Two: Fluctuations in space
I am interested in the uncomfortable, strange feelings of transitional states, and the awkwardness and anxiety that exist in these spaces. Lines cut from mylar stencils allow me to emphasize shape and create moving, layered, images that operate in an illogical, constantly fluctuating landscape. Sometimes strange, anxious creatures populate the peripheries of these spaces, sometimes figures are caught mid-transformation, as they turn into animals or hybridized beasts.
Girl on Fire, 2019, oil on canvas, 30×40 inches.
Cloud Lady, 2020, oil on canvas, 36×24 inches.
Time Collapse, 2020, oil on canvas, 30×40 inches.
Green Doorway, 2020, oil on canvas, 16×20 inches.
Four Foxes, 2019, oil on canvas, 30×40 inches
| Where/ How can Vacant Museum viewers see more of your work and where can they purchase it? |
| Viewers can see more of my work on my instagram: @cweaverzeman Tumblr: @cweavercat or website: claire-weaverzeman.squarespace.com They can purchase work by emailing: cweaver@alumni.risd.edu |