Claudia Selene is a mostly self-taught artist. Homeschooled by counter-cultural environmentalist parents, she spent countless hours drawing, painting, and writing poetry. Her family moved from place to place, living in communes, trailer parks and rental houses across the western United States.
When she left home at 17, she traveled extensively, eventually finding herself at the Ravenswood Atelier in Chicago. After a year of intensive training in sight-size drawing, she left the Atelier to share a studio with portrait artist Mary Qian. She taught herself color by making painstakingly realistic paintings of simple objects. As her skills improved, she began to paint increasingly complex things, including the human portrait and figure, clouds, and transparent glass. She is currently studying more illusory subjects such as flame, fog, storms moving in, and things in the process of melting and breaking.
Artwork is Claudia's way of exploring her fundamental questions about life. Her latest series of paintings, "If I Should Rise", focuses on the dichotomy of human nature:
When compassionate individuals gather with others who share some characteristic (ideology, race, gender, social class, etc.) why do they form insular groups that become violent and irrational?
Despite the creativity and generosity abundant in the human species, why does our biological success result in misery, oppression, and environmental destruction?
Claudia's work has been featured in group shows in Chicago, Michigan, Florida, Indiana and Arizona, and her paintings are held in private collections across the United States.
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The Gilda Snowden Memorial Exhibition, The Scarab Club, Detroit, MI — 3rd Place Winner
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Three Point Perspective, Village Theater Gallery at Cherry Hill, Canton, MI — Three-person show
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If I Should Rise, Glacier Hills, Ann Arbor, MI — Solo Show
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Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival, Dexter, MI — Professional Category
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Art + Earth Exhibition, The Detroit River Coalition, Detroit, MI
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Ann Arbor Art Fair, Ann Arbor, MI
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12th Biennial National Art Exhibition, Visual Arts Center, Punta Gorda, FL — Bowles Award for Portrait Excellence
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2020 Sketch Session Exhibition, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI
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Art Now 2019: Painting, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI
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Ann Arbor Art Fair, Ann Arbor, MI
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Oil Painters of America 2018 Fall Associate & Signature Online Showcase — Honorable Mention Award
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Ann Arbor Art Fair, Ann Arbor, MI
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Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival, Dexter, MI — Professional Category
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Ann Arbor Art Fair, Ann Arbor, MI — Newcomer's Award
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Instructor Exhibition, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI
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Paul Henry's Art Gallery, Hammond, IN
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Gold Medal Show, Palette & Chisel, Chicago, IL
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All Media Exhibition, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI — Michigan
Award
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Ravenswood Atelier, Classical painting, Chicago, IL
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The Drawing Workshop, Anatomy, sculpture, figure drawing, Chicago, IL