I am a textile artist and illustrator living in a small town in northeastern Missouri. I have made art all my life, but while studying drawing and painting in college, I became fascinated with German literature and film. So I threw myself into learning the language, living first in Dresden, then Bonn, then Berlin, then Dresden again, then Bonn again, then Berlin again. Phew! I studied everything from the history of the German language (did you know that the English word “fee” is related to the German “Vieh”, meaning “livestock”?) to German Romanticism (my two children are named after the protagonists of the wonderful and strange Heinrich von Ofterdingen, by Novalis) to East German film to West German literature. But while trying to formulate a Ph.D. thesis on the experimental filmmaker and author Alexander Kluge, I began to feel that something was missing. I wanted more time for art-making than life in academia could ever afford. So after some deep soul-searching, I decided to leave graduate school and pursue illustration. I have also worked as a German-to-English translator and proofreader since 2011.
It wasn’t until I had children that I really found my voice as an artist. In my work, I explore the minutiae of young children’s everyday lives and strive to hew as closely as possible to their real experiences. What objects REALLY fascinate a baby? What happens, exactly, when you get stitches? How do you learn to use a screwdriver or a knife?
My preferred technique is embroidery on felt. See examples of my work here, read more about my process here, and e-mail me at clairemdavis1983@gmail.com if you’d like to get in touch!