Clare Willard

About

Aspex welcomes designer maker Clare Willard for a showcase of her work in our Craft & Design space. The artist's work in the artist's words: Assembled with an intriguing palette of coloured laminate and wood, I make hand constructed, one off and limited edition wall pieces and jewellery. Work is tailored to the small and intimate or scaled up to produce striking architectural installations. Drawing on both abstract pattern and pattern in landscape, I employ strong saturated colour, combined with the depth of low relief planes. I explore rhythm and dynamism in the British landscape with a sense of play, providing the viewer with intriguing perspectives intended to stimulate and delight. Fuelled by a love of materials, colour and pattern, my creative practice was nurtured by a degree in Anthropology in 1996. Influences as far-flung as the appliqué molas of the Kuna Indians and the inter-cut shyrdak rugs of Central Asia shaped my early ideas. This diverse, exuberant and expressive sense of making still maintains its influence in my practice today. Whilst working in Public Art, I formally embarked on my own creative practice. A self- taught screen printer and pattern designer, I completed an MA in Textile Design at Chelsea College of Art & Design in 2006. My unusual foundation enabled my approach to textiles to be uninhibited. During this MA I developed a language using laminates and plywood, which was further refined during a Crafts Council residency in 2008. This unique language transforms the materials into an unusual and eloquent vehicle for colour and line. My shapes are sifted, clean and graphic, manifesting a printmaker's logic. Each piece is borne out of a process starting with combinations of paintings, photographs, sketches and maquettes. Referencing techniques of wood and textile traditions such as marquetry and appliqué, my practice also explores the creative potential of cutting-edge CNC technologies. Sensitive observations and intuitive distillations are meticulously converted to lines on a computer with pinpoint accuracy. Once colours are laser cut or routed, pieces are constructed painstakingly by hand.