Claiborne Colombo is an artist, Creative and Design Director based on Lopez Island, WA.NOTES
Making art and designing things where the land meets the sea. A digital journal and visual record of Claiborne’s art, life, design, inspiration, and musings, among all other things…
Ascent Building Co. / BrandingLove getting to work with local brands. Lopez-based custom builder came to me to refresh their identity. Everything they make is built to be cohesive with the land and climate of the San Juans, to endure the elements, and to last for years to come.
They needed their brand to do the same.
A little stretch goes a long way…
Stretching littles and it’s making me feel so good. It takes the work from feeling like a sketch to an actual art piece.
Stretching littles and it’s making me feel so good. It takes the work from feeling like a sketch to an actual art piece.
These 10 x 10 inchers are made with fluid acrylics on raw canvas. Really enjoying tucking these corners and getting them all tidy.
Hoping to collaborate with my husband to make float frames out of island wood from our property. Stay tuned…
Look down,
zoom in,
crack.
Will never get bored when we’re out exploring. All I see are lines, textures, colors – inspiration for my work if I just look down/up/out.
Let’s break taboos,
get dirty and
talk money.
Last of my projects at Instrument went live yesterday.
Congrats team, way to bring it on home.
Role: Creative Director
Team: Bella Shih, Crystal Chou, Erik Zimmerman, Evan Gütt, Jack De Caluwé, Jeremie Wimbrow, Jordan Jenkins, Katie Hilgemann, Ravi Mongia, Semhar Kelati, Avi Couillard, Kurumi Yoshimoto
Ship Supply
One of my favorite design projects was creating the @shipsupply logo with friends.
+ Font and general style inspired by vintage nautical maps.
+ Custom wave line work nods to living a life with the sea.
+ Classic stamp design.
Open Ground: Shedding Skin
Progression of work
It's a daunting feeling when you know you need to evolve your work, but you don't know-how. I had been sitting with this for some time, and there are many points of view on how to get after it. Sometimes you need to work through it. Sometimes you need to think it through. Sometimes it's a mixture of both.
My sense of place and time has flattened. Meaning, boundaries between work/life/art/design/mother/friend/partner have been not only blurred but flattened into one plane of existence. With this, I crave simplicity—a reduction of the unnecessary. Peeling back the skin to see the bones and what hold us/me altogether.
Open Ground, 2020
Acrylic and India Ink on cotton paper
I am continuing to figure out the relationships between shapes, color, and lines as I explore this body of work on paper and wood panel. I feel the creative momentum and am excited to work through it all in my new studio.
Transitioning to wood panel
A little art, a little sunshine
Wapato – 36” x 48”
Love it when friends make your art look beautiful in homes.
Staged by the talented Copeland + Co. Interiors
E C H O : A Two-Person Show
I will be showing my work alongside Carolyn Hazel Drake in WOMXN HOUSE’s inaugural show August 15 - September 8.
Through repetition and materials, we both recreate and translate echoes of what once was. Carolyn’s work focuses on the legacy of people and I the legacy of place.
OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, August 15, 2019 from 7-9 PM
3636 N Mississippi Ave,
Portland, OR
If you are unable to attend, you can request an online preview.
All art is for sale.
“This exhibition features the artwork of Claiborne Colombo and Carolyn Hazel Drake. Both artists are recreating an echo of something that once was - not a direct representation, but a translation. This echo morphs and changes shape as it moves through space and time. The artwork of both artists has a repetitive nature but one that is not perfect nor machine, rather human and imperfect. Both artists incorporate the ideas of deconstruction, the demarcation of time, and repetition as meditation.
Carolyn Hazel Drake’s work is rooted in nostalgia, seen through the lens of the conceptual underpinnings that are grounded in being a woman. Her work acts as a record of words not said — making space for meaning. Claiborne Colombo’s work takes the viewer on a journey full of fluctuations, pauses, crossroads, and moments of discovery. Her dashes, much like Carolyn’s stitches, act as a marking of time. Her pieces are about movement and creating energy through the travel of her created spaces.
“Be what you are, of the earth, but a dreamer too”
– Mary Oliver”
Summer sisters
Glacial Pool No. 1 & No. 2, 2019
Enjoyed working on these sister paintings. This commission got me back into color and I’m loving it. Layering and finding balance between two pieces was a fun challenge. Looking forward to seeing them in their Arizona home.
ArtWorks Northwest: Group Show
Marquam, 2018
I am excited to announce that one of my paintings, Marquam, has been selected for the Artworks Northwest Exhibit. This annual juried show is organized by the Umpqua Valley Arts Association.
ARTWORKS NW OPENING
Friday May 17 from 5-7PM
The Hallie Brown Ford Gallery
Rosenburg, OR
This year’s juror, Danielle Knapp (curator at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art), has chosen work from over 600 submissions they received from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Northern California, and Oregon. This year they have accepted work from 56 artists.
Incubation
Winter is usually a time of retreat and reflection. This year more than others, I craved solitude. Time to myself away from the studio to replenish my creativity. At first, I was wondering why I was avoiding the studio. I realized it was because I didn't know what to do next.
I knew my work needed to evolve, but how? I should work through it, right? I should make a bunch of ugly work and learn through the process of doing. I should redirect my attention to a completely new project so I can get reenergized from working in a different way. I should... but I didn't and I'm not. Not right now at least.
I listened to a podcast and two episodes resonated and reframed how I considered my experience*. I transitioned from thinking I was in a dead/dry spell to realize I am in an incubation phase. Yes, I am replenishing my creative energies but I am doing more than that. Under the surface, I am sorting out what I want to do next. I'm mentally trying to evolve my work and practice. Eventually, I will need to work it out on the canvas/paper/whatever but for now, I am okay with absorbing, conceptualizing, and thinking about new themes I'd like to explore.
*The Messy Studio put out these two episodes that really spoke to me...
Keeping It Going: Maybe it is a reflection of the winter doldrums but blocks and downtimes can happen any time of year. How do you cope with feelings of boredom and frustration that make it hard to keep working?
Changing Directions: The creative journey is never a straight path and all artists go through times of change in their work. These are necessary but can also be frustrating and painful as you head into the unknown. Today we’re going to talk about times of change in your work and some of the challenges that artists face.
Art Baby: Interview
As is the case with many of the artists I find to profile on Art Baby, I first connected with Claiborne Colombo's work as I was scrolling through Instagram. There's an intensity here: the rich colors look like they're seeping through the paper or canvas, while splatters of paint and meandering lines fill out an abstract landscape pulsing with a deep and welcome energy that's apparent in all of her art. I was so happy to find out we live in the same city and recently met for coffee (matcha for her!) at the Stumptown Coffee in the Ace Hotel in Downtown Portland. Claiborne is energetic and charming, full of life and ideas, and passionate about cultivating opportunities for creative connection.
Where did you grow up and where you do live now?
I lived in various places in the South until I was 25. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia and went to school in Tennessee. Before I moved, I had no idea the Pacific Northwest was a thing. It’s so beautiful out here. Lush, green - all the plants are bigger. It’s crazy. Currently, I live in St. Johns neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. It has a really nice old-school vibe mixed with industry and nature.
How would you describe your art? What’s your medium?
I’m an abstract mixed-media artist. Working on both canvas and paper, I use transparent layers of acrylic, graphite, charcoal, and pastels. The layers intersect and combine without compromising the raw nature of each material.
I like to use colors that flow, vibrate and bounce off one another. They act as a compass, helping the eye navigate through the layered terrain.
In play with the swaths of color are more detailed marks. With my marks, I try to capture movement, subtle shifts, and drastic divides. Throughout my work, lines and shapes are repeated and transformed, flowing across the expanse.
Is Beautiful Bad?
Wapato, 2018
Your work is “beautiful”…
This is a common response that I get about my work. Is saying art is beautiful a (backhanded) compliment? Does it flatten the work? Make it have less depth? Is beauty a bad thing?
In thinking about beauty I also started thinking about ugliness and if that gives work more depth. In searching I found this article Ugliness Is Underrated: In Defense of Ugly Paintings by Katy Kelleher.
“Even though the word ugly is now primarily used to describe the unaesthetic aspect of things rather than their deep moral fiber, it retains elements of its original meaning. Using it can shift a well-meaning aesthetic critique into the realm of moral judgment. This is unfortunate for those of us who genuinely enjoy, and celebrate, ugly things. If you, too, want to appreciate ugliness, the first thing you have to do is stop assuming that it is the inverse of beauty. We tend to talk about aesthetics as though the categories are locked in a battle: good versus evil, light versus dark. But opposites are a crutch. Beauty and ugliness do not negate each other. ”
I found it extremely interesting that our neurological response to ugly and beauty lights up the same parts of our brains.
“Beauty does not occupy a different area of the brain than ugliness. Both are part of a continuum representing the values the brain attributes to them.” Although we experience them differently, beauty and ugliness both tap into our emotional center, an area deeply involved in analyzing other’s motives and actions and generating both sympathy and empathy.
This one is for you
Commission for Root’d
There is something about commissions I find extremely special and rewarding. They are always a little nerve-racking while you are making them, but the reward is worth it. It is a massive compliment to me and my work when people want a custom piece to fill their space. Especially for their bedroom. For me, that is such an intimate space where our inner worlds come to life. Having my art be a part of that makes my heart warm.
If you are interested in a custom piece for your space please reach out!
Silver Spur, 2019
SUNDANCE SHOW, ROOT'D - PARK CITY, UT
Caloplaca, 2017
6 colorful pieces created in the mountain town of Banff will preview at Root’d in Park City for Sundance.
ROOT’D OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, January 25 from 3-7 PM
596 Main Street
Park City, Utah
If you are unable to attend, feel free to request an online preview. All art is for sale.
Everyday Rituals
Sage from Sisters, OR
One of my goals this year is to have a more dedicated sketchbook practice. I’ve been feeling a little unmotivated with my painting series so getting back into drawing from observation seemed like a useful activity. As I was drawing this sage bundle that’s in my studio, I was thinking a lot about rituals. As artist, we talk about the daily rituals that help us establish our creative space and initiate our practice.
The ritualization of the mundane invites the mind to settle into the body. It creates opportunities to get quiet, to feel honestly, to look inward in a world that is begging us to look elsewhere. Over time, it can help us connect to spirit and share it with those around us.
– The Spirit Almanac
I am unsure of how this practice will inform something more significant but I see a path, and it’s calling me to move down it. There is a nugget. A piece to explore. Keep drawing. Research rituals.
