Denise LeClaire

A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE ARTIST

1. What do you do when you’re not making art? (Day job etc...).

I've been a school counselor for the past 22 years, but it's time to do something new so I'll be leaving my school position in June to join a local private practice as a psychotherapist. I'll work a few days a week there and spend more time on artistic, writing and musical pursuits.

2. Why do you make art?

It's about connection. It has always helped me make sense of the world and my own life. It helps me process life's big questions or to motivate myself to move toward new experiences and ideas. There's such a meditative quality to creating, I know that it's something that helps maintain me as a person. My thoughts about both the big ideas of life, and the small moments we all experience find their way into my art and I hope to make a connection with the viewer emotionally, maybe spiritually, about their own life experience through my work.

3. What inspires you?

The landscape of everyday life, because that's what we all have to work with. Nature. Sometimes a photograph I've taken. A discussion I've had with a friend could inform an entire painting. A song I hear on the radio that I suddenly hear in a different way. It might be a passage in a book I'm reading or a quote I come across. It's these things all falling together.

4. What/who are your influences?

Nature. Words and conversations. People who are passionate about what they do. Fear. Gustav Klimt, Van Gogh, Jim Dine, Mark Rothko. Georgia O'Keeffe, Helen Frankenthaler.

5. If you could meet anyone dead or alive who would it be?

Wow, that's a tough one. Maybe Alan Watts. Maybe Cher!