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ARTIST'S
STATEMENT
Claudia's
ideas and inspirations are drawn from theatre, film and the music
business in general and from the Supernatural and Surrealism in
particular.
Her art ranges from the esoteric and the dramatic to the camp and
sometimes ironic.Her
collage/multi media works are difficult to categorise, which makes
it all the
more intriguing.Her
surrealist background can be seen in her work for English publishing
house Dedalus, specialists in European classics and fantastic
literature, for whom Andrei has designed (amongst other covers)
The Dedalus Book Of Medieval Literature as well as The
Great Bagarozy and Simplicissimus. She has also designed
the cover for Rhode Island Red, a crime thriller by Serpent's
Tail and illustrated the innard for a Mentor Press publication.Claudia's
work in the music biz has been equally impressive: hand-coloured
magazine covers of U2 and Johnny Cash (Hot Press),
a collage cover of Tricky (The Wire), tinted photos
of British mega indie bands Oasis and Supergrass (VOX
Magazine). Furthermore, she illustrated an article of rock legend
Patti Smith for MOJO.Her
strong fascination for the Supernatural has resulted in commissions
for Hammer Films Ltd, for which she created her own licensed
postcard series. She particularly enjoys long-standing contributions
for SHIVERS-Magazine, for which most notably she has designed
an X-Files poster and illustrated feature articles on German
Expressionist Cinema and Famous Gothic Writers. Claudia
also illustrated the front cover for the spring issue of The
Wicker Man Magazine.A
special interest for all things theatrical has prompted poster designs
for plays by Ibsen, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Wilde as wel as
posters for Faust, Bram Stoker's DRACULA and
various experimental plays.Apart
from her commercial work and commissions, the artist exhibits in
venues and galleries throughout London and the UK on a regular basis.
her pieces range from hand-pasted collages and digitally enhanced
Mixed Media pictures up to limited edition prints (etchings and
aquatints). her pieces have been sold to collectors as far as Japan
and Canada.Claudia
studied trad. printmaking under Frank Connelly at The
City Lit and enrolled on various courses for digital image manipulation
and graphic design at The London College of Printing, but
her best teacher was her artist father.
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Titania
I
have always been fascinated by fairies and wood spirits,
it is something I grew up with. My parents and especially
my grandmother
(who are of German/Slovac descent) told me many stories
of creatures in the woods like elfs, goblins, fairies
and witches. To me they were not part of superstition
and folklore but real. Obviously some of my opinions
have changed (and matured) since childhood, but Istill
believe that animals, trees etc all possess a spirit
and that the woods are frequently haunted by otherworldly
creatures - and no, I don't mean the Blair Witch! several
years ago I started to get interested in how spirits,
fairies and so forth are portrayed in literatureand
in films. As an illustrator this is a source of neverending
possibilities. And which source of literature could
captivate the veryessence of a fairy lore better than
Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This
was the idea behind my Mixed Media pieceTitania.
I portrayed her with three breasts because to me she
reflects elements of the triple goddess, but I also
added the serpent and the forbidden fruit because of
her alluring qualities.
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Cat
Demon
This
piece was inspired by my huge interest in Canadian Native
American culture, especially the West Coast tribes stretching
from British Columbia to Alaska. Their many myths of
how the world was created is wonderfully "re-told"
in the totem-pole carvings and further visuallytranslated
by contemporary artists such as Robert Davidson (a native
Haida). His fantastically composed prints dominated
by a bold andlinear style awoke my interest not only
in various printmaking techniques, but also in how animal
spirits are portrayed in artwork. Sinceobviously my
surroundings here in England are inhabited by different
animals (no whales or bears) I started off with not
only my favouritekind of animal in general but by my
favourite creature on this planet: my cat! What I like
about it most is the dual personality of felines,and
I tried to capture both characteristics in my piece.
Also, cats to me possesssupernatural qualities and I
feel I can comminuicatewith them, hence the title Cat
Demon (in this case, a friendly demon).
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Lagnasad
In
traditional pagan belief Lagnasad (or Lamma)
marks the time when the first fruits and crops of the
harvet were offered to the earth goddess. This ancient
celebration takes place on August 1st. Back home in
my native Germany large dolls made of corn are displayed
at peoples dorrsteps(mainly in rural parts) and bread
loafs are baked in the shape of a man and a woman to
emphasise the fertility aspect. Lagnasad was celebratedlike
this during my childhood and I believe it has not changed
much over all those years. Apart from Walpurgis
(May day), the celebrations for Lagnasad are one of
the very few ancient pagan customs which havesurvived
and are equally celebrated by pagans and non-pagans
in manyparts of Germany as well as all over the world.
In my Mixed Media piece Lagnasad the earth goddess
wears a tiara made of sunflowers and looksdown at the
gifts brought in her honour. In the bottom centre I
placed an open blossom, this is symbolic and stands
for fertility.
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