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Claire Putney – Artist Statement
“I come from a world of maps, mountains, and cross-country road trips. My grandfather made maps, my mother followed them, and now they have been passed on to me. It is the space between a map and the location it describes that interests me most, where many of the identifications and connotations of a place are lost. The relationship between human experience and geographic location is at the core of my work. Maps, charts, and diagrams are layered with site-specific imagery and materials to offer evidence of one’s physical and emotional connection with a place and the histories that have been created there.”
Bio
Claire Putney is best known for her large-scale, alternative process drawings that explore the affective bond between people and place. Interacting directly with the environments that she is portraying is an important part of her process: collecting materials on site, sketching from observation, and sharing histories through interpersonal dialogue.
While in the Puget Sound area, Claire has had the pleasure of participating in several group and solo exhibitions, had her work purchased for the City of Seattle Portable Work Collection, the Westland Hotel in Pioneer Square, and the Lynnwood Convention Center. For the past 10 years, Claire has been a faculty member and art gallery director at Shoreline Community College. She recently started a family artist collective, Frog Holler Studios, with her mother Nancy and spouse James.