We first encountered Claire Milbrath’s work during her last show at de boer Gallery in Los Angeles. Her series God Shaped Hole, allures us with a series of mundane scenes where the kitchen becomes the ultimate place of love and joy and the bathroom a personal cathedral of isolation and yearning. Milbrath invites us to reconcile with the sublime of our daily routines, using it as an ideal starting point to the eternal human quest of filling the metaphorical god-shaped hole in each of us.
Juan Marco Torres:You’re a self-taught painter. Can you share how you started working as an artist?
Claire Milbrath: I started as an illustrator, and painting became another medium to convey those illustrations. It began as a hobby for me, a thing I did on the side of Editorial Magazine and photography jobs.
JMT: Tell me about Gray, the subject of your paintings?
CM: Gray is my alter-ego. I started drawing Gray when I was younger, as the lead character of a comic strip. Gray is a vessel for me to work out complicated feelings, and he’s often depicted as anxious. In recent years though, I’ve wanted to give him more joy so you will find him on adventures, in loving embraces, etc.
JMT: What motivates you to explore existential restlessness?
CM: That’s interesting you asked that, because I was reflecting on how I am not existential anymore. Is that a symptom of our 20s? It was for me. The scenes I paint have evolved along with my own spirituality. In the past I was fascinated with existentialism and dread, and maybe depicting it, laughing at it, was a way to sit with those feelings. But right now I feel more drawn to faith and joy, and am interested in sharing that lightness with the viewer.
JMT: A lot of the scenes depicted in your pieces take place in everyday settings. What does routine mean to you?
CM: I love routine, maybe too much. I find it comforting. I think there is love in routine, especially simple domestic acts, love for our family and love for ourselves.
JMT: Your work is soft and funny. I feel safe and warm when I look at it, it’s therapeutic. How did you achieve your distinctive style of painting?
CM: That makes me happy to hear! My paintings are just scenes I imagine and illustrate on canvas. My style of paint feels secondary, the paint is just a means to depict the scene. I would like to play a bit more with the application of the paint though.
JMT: What are you inspired by the most these days?
CM: Music and nature. The daffodils are out, I love seeing their bold yellows pop in the dark brown forest near my studio. I love Alessandro Alessandroni for music right now.
JMT: Could you share a bit about your creative process?
CM: I think about scenes I want to paint, often writing lists like “dog knocks over planter, prayer in moonlight, butterfly visits dog” and then I eventually make a sketch – usually about 3-4 sketches to work out composition and colour. And then I am ready to paint.
JMT: How would you compare the art scene in Montreal with the one here in LA?
CM: I moved away from Montreal a year ago, to Victoria, a Westcoast town in Canada. I’ve never really identified with an IRL arts community, opting for the one I find online instead. Having had a gallery in LA and one in Montreal I’ve had the opportunity to work and show in both cities and I find them both to have bustling art scenes. I usually avoid openings though.
JMT: What’s behind your choice of color for your paintings?
CM: I’m drawn to bright colours, and associate colour with joy. I’m trying to challenge myself recently by using more muted palettes, dark browns, greys, but I still can’t resist a dab of cadmium red…
JMT: What kind of projects are you looking forward to in the future?
CM: My next solo show is pretty far off so I’m looking forward to experiment a bit in the studio.
