Artist.

Claire experiences and processes the world creatively. Intensely curious and introspective, she engages with the world deeply, noticing details that many others simply pass by. Since she comes from a bookish family with cokebottle glasses, she rejoices in both the miracle of being ABLE to see, and the miracle of NATURE and CULTURE that she is able to see. As a result her work is full of gratitude, honoring both the spirit and the vitality of wild and working landscapes.

She began her journey as an artist at a young age in her own unique way.  There was no art school, no training, just the joy of doodling and the daily quests of discovery. In college, she spent hours wandering in the mountains with a field journal and pen in hand, recording observations and reflections on the landscape community around her: alligators and spoonbills in Central Texas or elk and whitebark pine in the Northern Rockies. This was hands-on, place based learning at its finest.

Really, Claire became an artist through the back door. Having discovered the joy of observing the fine details of the world, she pursued a graduate degree in Natural Science illustration from University of California in Santa Cruz. With no degree in either science or art, it was a great surprise that she was accepted into this highly competitive Science Communication program. As with many things, she just jumped in and made the path by walking.

Since graduating from the Natural Science Illustration Program from UCSC in 2000, she has worked as a scientific illustrator, illustrating several books, posters, interpretive signs and publications. Her clients include W.W. Norton, the New York Botanical Garden, Montana Audubon, US Forest Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, California State Parks, Mountain Press, and Orion Magazine. In 2005, she completed an M.S. in Environmental studies from the University of Montana, with an emphasis in place-based education and art. In 2015, she finally got to go to art school! She completed a cutting-edge, immersive MFA program in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Art.

For the past 20 years, Claire has passionately pursued connecting art and conservation in her field sketches, her commissions, her original woodcuts, her teaching programs and in her place-based installations. How to engage people in the wonder and beauty of nature? How to use art as a tool to engage people in the local landscape community and conservation issues? How to catalyze community, both human and ecological, through creative group work and dialogue? These are the questions at the heart of her work in the world.

She has collaborated with a dozen conservation groups, including Glacier National Park, the Montana Osprey Project, California State Parks, Missoula's Garden City Harvest, Montana Audubon, the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition, and the Fire Center at the University of Montana.  She is particularly interested in projects involving restoration and vitality: wild places, working landscapes, and personal transformation.

Her current work focuses on transforming her field sketches, observations of place, and reflections on the spiritual journey into woodcuts. Using a variety of carving tools, she carves away at the woodblocks, drawing images out of the darkness of the wood and into the light. Her bold and exquisitely detailed woodcuts are commissioned by conservation organizations and sought by collectors around the country.