About Me

Hi, I'm Claire, the creator behind EclairMosaics! For the most part I'm just a person who likes to turn tile, found items, broken ceramics and possibly some grout into artwork. The natural scenery of the western US inspires most of my work, although my plethora of other hobbies also plays a role (click the Random button for, well, a random peak into what else I'm up to).

The Philosophy Behind my Art

In the end, I make art with one goal in mind: enjoyment. I only make pieces that I enjoy creating, from the idea to the physical item, looking at, and sharing. To me, art should be beautiful. It's a happy coincidence if a piece also happens to have a message or a meaning, either to myself or whoever looks at it. While I could care less if other artists start with a message (such as 'this piece explores the artist's relationship to the natural world'), that's not how I view art.

 

For some reason the opinion that art should be, first and foremost, beautiful is surprisingly controversial. Compared to any point in history, the average amount of "beauty" in our built environments has never been greater. I can go online and look at images of whatever masterpiece I want to. I can listen to virtually any piece of music and my clothes are stylish and colorful. Perhaps because of this almost oversaturation of beauty, society doesn't really value beauty. I'd argue that a vast majority of, for example, buildings being built aren't beautiful. No cookiecutter suburban house is beautiful. No stripmall is beautiful. No roadway is beautiful. Yet we have almost infinite capability to create beauty. Only we choose not to.

 

I want everything in my life, even the basest utilitarian item, to be beautiful. What is the purpose of creating and then living in a society if everything is unthinkingly ugly? Why can't we create deliberate beauty instead?