“Imagination is My Monastery…” is a new art exhibit that opens in the Chapel Gallery on Sunday, September 20. All are invited to meet the artist, Clare Cole, at 12:15 p.m. in the chapel immediately after the service, or to stay for the public art reception from 1–3 p.m. Refreshments will be served. 

Works on display will include mixed media collage, runway wearable art creations, and shadow story boxes. For the past ten years, Cole has enjoyed creating wearable art for various shows. She also creates pieces from ‘found’ treasures.” Most recently Cole is enjoying making bootbox size ‘shadow box stories.’ She explains, “Composition, media choice, coloration, and design are transported into an arena of surprises and opening where just the right materials, visual constructs, and engineering fixes seem to almost magically appear. I am the vehicle, but something greater than me is carrying the vision forward: a desire for something meaningful or beautiful to be shared.”

“Imagination is my monastery… These words borrowed from John Keats seem to capture the essence of what my artplay seeks to express,” says Cole. “Whatever the medium, the process remains the same: an inspiration towards a state of mental openness, a yearning to play; a moving through self-judgment and what feels like unsolvable design challenges; and then a beginning.”

Clare Cole is a member of UUC. Her work has been exhibited at a variety of galleries and venues in western Washington including the Tasheo Kaplan Gallery for Pratt Institute “Conjunto Puerta Vallarta” show (2013), Metropolitan Fashion Week at the Chinese Gardens Seattle Art Museum (2017), and the Port Townsend Film Festival (2018).  Her work was selected as the poster image for the Ocean Shores Wearable Art Show (2020).

The exhibit will hang at UUC until October 23. For more information about her work, contact the artist at Klarabella77@yahoo.com.