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Claudia Coberly

Claudia Coberly is a mixed media artist that uses unconventional materials such as recycled scraps of paintings, scraps of wood and plaster. She lives with her son and husband in Park City, Utah.

Coberly moved often due to her father's naval career attending twelve schools, ending in Jacksonville Florida. This provided her with a number of new environments to inspire her art work. In the sixties, she attended Ringling School Of Art. In the mid-eighties she completed her education at the University of Utah earning her B.F.A. in 1995 and her M.F.A. in 1998.

Biography adapted from material supplied by the Artist.

I am addicted to the creative process. The mood I am in becomes central to the process that I will use. It may be aggressive or more thoughtful. All of my effort for the day may only add up to an opportunity to contemplate the process. It will probably be covered up with the musing of an entirely new direction in mind.

I utilize mixed media and unconventional materials such as my own recycled scraps of paintings, scraps of wood and plaster. My tools are trowels, knives, sticks and cheap brushes.I work in continuous cycles of building up and tearing down. I like to bury some parts only to dig them out later, like an excavation. Each cycle confronts me with new problems and a new reality to challenge me.The layered cycles become the painting's history and a part of my collective experience. My decisions are both conscious and unconscious. My choice in most cases is to trust the action. My continuous attention will eventually emerge into an arrangement of wholeness which becomes closure . . . The painting feels complete and I am no longer a part of it.

My imagery has been primarily figurative but that has varied over the years to include abstracts that are less confining. Their imagery is more spontaneous and refers to textures and marks man leaves behind. I include repetitive marks and geometric shapes that become automatic with the intense activity that my process demands, it invites these marks with 'no thought' or expectations.

When one of my paintings are done, it exists in its own reality ... I am also challenged, as is the viewer to actively participate in seeing and responding to the results of process or something that transcends it. Success or failure is not a criterion for its communication. For me, it is the prelude to the next painting.

My father was career Navy resulting in my attending twelve schools, ending in Jacksonville Florida. My earliest memories are of a constant adjustment to new environments. My art was always reliable in spite of change throughout my early life. In the sixties, I attended Ringling School Of Art. In the mid-eighties my husband, son and myself moved to Utah where I completed my education at the University of Utah. We presently reside in Park City Utah.

  • 1966 Ringling School of Art.........Sarasota, Florida
  • 1995 B.F.A. University of Utah.....Salt Lake City, Utah
  • 1998 M. F.A. University of Utah.....Salt Lake City, Utah

To contact this artist: ccoberly@aol.com or cfurnishcoberly.com

Biography courtesy of the Artist.

Newspaper Articles

"Art Canvas." The Deseret News, April 5, 1998.

"Art Canvas." The Deseret News, February 10, 2002.

"Showing at local galleries." The Deseret News, September 19, 1999.

"Showing at local galleries." The Deseret News, May 30, 1999.

 

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