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Artwork 2021
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Future Butterfly II"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
The Black Swallowtail caterpillar is a gorgeous caterpillar. Until this year, these caterpillars have arrived every summer in my backyard and I love to watch them grow and morph into butterflies, along with their relatives the Monarch. Unfortunately, many people in my surrounding neighborhood view caterpillars as pests and spray their entire gardens, killing or hurting all insect life in the process and the creatures higher in the food chain that depend on them for sustenance.
With my series of Future Butterfly artworks (I, II and III) I want to raise the profile of the humble caterpillar. I want people to see how beautiful these creatures can be in their own right and to remind people that they are an essential part of our garden if we want them to complete their life cycle into butterflies. I want to encourage people to search for better methods at surviving the summer caterpillar season without requiring that all insects shall perish.
I created three works to represent the seasons when we normally see caterpillars: spring, summer and fall. I used larger beads for the caterpillar than the rest of the background in all three artworks. Thus they come to life as they crawl over the leaf and stem. By contrasting matte beads against more shimmering beads, I create a sense of light and movement that makes you feel as if you are there in the garden with them, just as I was when the original photo was taken on which these pieces are based.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: November 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, canvas MDF substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 12 inches x 16 inches
Hours to make: over 100 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Future Butterfly I"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
The Black Swallowtail caterpillar is a gorgeous caterpillar. Until this year, these caterpillars have arrived every summer in my backyard and I love to watch them grow and morph into butterflies, along with their relatives the Monarch. Unfortunately, many people in my surrounding neighborhood view caterpillars as pests and spray their entire gardens, killing or hurting all insect life in the process and the creatures higher in the food chain that depend on them for sustenance.
With my series of Future Butterfly artworks (I, II and III) I want to raise the profile of the humble caterpillar. I want people to see how beautiful these creatures can be in their own right and to remind people that they are an essential part of our garden if we want them to complete their life cycle into butterflies. I want to encourage people to search for better methods at surviving the summer caterpillar season without requiring that all insects shall perish.
I created three works to represent the seasons when we normally see caterpillars: spring, summer and fall. I used larger beads for the caterpillar than the rest of the background in all three artworks. Thus they come to life as they crawl over the leaf and stem. By contrasting matte beads against more shimmering beads, I create a sense of light and movement that makes you feel as if you are there in the garden with them, just as I was when the original photo was taken on which these pieces are based.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: November 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, canvas MDF substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 14. inches x 18 inches
Hours to make: over 130 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Skull and Crossbones"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
Theirs was a pirate wedding, complete with the most amazing costumes and the best location. A lovely wedding for two people to become a couple. They both share a love for Halloween. Thus it was appropriate when making a gift for one half of this couple that it should be a Halloween appropriate Skull and Crossbones!
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: October 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, bamboo substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 4 inches x 4 inches
Hours to make: over 8 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Trooper"
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Availability: Artwork is not available.
Meaning:
Trooper was a rescue dog several times over. He was first rescued as a young man after he was hit by a car. Based on his condition, he had spent considerable time before this wandering lost in the woods. After many surgeries and a lot of care by many wonderful people, he was adopted out. Unfortunately Trooper’s new owner became seriously ill and a neighbor was asked to care for him. He became too much for that neighbor and was returned to the original rescue organization. There he stayed for many years living in the kennel. He was happiest on his own and fosters generally had more dogs than they could handle.
We first encountered and fostered Trooper at the age of 12 and quickly adopted him. His life had known great pain and abandonment, and yet he was, with us, the happiest dog. His experiences had taught him the value of life and what it meant. There was many a walk when we would stop to sniff the breeze, enjoying the sights and sounds of the world around us. Time spent with us brought him great joy and he never wanted to be left behind. This is how I choose to remember him, the loving, caring, wise dog who in his last year and a half made our lives so much richer and happier for his presence.
If you are interested in rescuing or helping a dog, please talk with the Homeless Animals Rescue Team, or your local pet rescue society.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: August 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 11 inches x 14 inches
Hours to make: over 90 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Abstract Landscape"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
Color and how we use it can be so evocative. Colors can remind us of a time, a place, a smell, an emotion, a memory, a person or many other things. We see a color and are immediately transported into an environment, whether one of our own making or one that is naturally occurring.
I wanted to create a recognizable and emotive landscape that focused solely on color and a simple repeating pattern. I organized my beads (for each color layer) into blocks of light, medium and dark colors, giving each block a range of shades. I then did my best to lay those colors with a few simple rules. Each block would be randomly applied, and I would endeavor to make sure that blocks of the same shade would not connect.
I worked to remove shading, depth, values and perspective, and yet as I look at this piece, they are there. The randomly applied beads give depth and shading to each layer, just by being a different color. The decision to use darker colors followed by lighter colors gives perspective and to some degree a range of values.
Yet without the colors of this piece, I would not see what I had created and so I would be devoid of the memories and emotions that this artwork creates for me. Memories of sitting with my parents in a kitchen as they shared their photos with me. Photos taken on an epic trip around Western Australia where the desert meets the ocean.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: August 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Cardinal II"
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Availability: Available for sale. Price on request. Click here to inquire about purchasing or an in-person viewing.
Meaning:
The males are a flash of red regardless of the season. In my back garden they perform the rituals of their lives with their respective mates - raising chicks, finding food, finding shelter. They are mundane daily tasks and yet when watching another species at work, they are also endlessly fascinating.
They remind me that even when dressed in the most gorgeous of finery we all have work that needs to be done. The work of raising, of living, of being. None of us are exempt. They remind me that it is the work of living that creates a life. These tasks are the fabric on which our memories and moments are built on. Finally, they also remind me that a life does not need to be anything more. These moments are sufficient enough reason for just being.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: July 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, bamboo substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 4 inches x 4 inches
Hours to make: over 8 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Common Collared Lizard"
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Availability: Available for sale. Price on request. Click here to inquire about purchasing or an in-person viewing.
Meaning:
Lizard, I followed you across the ground, my camera poised to capture your likeness. You were quick however and kept moving. I could barely keep pace. I negotiated and asked you for your picture. As if you realized what I wanted, you paused long enough for me to click the shutter. In that instant you are frozen forever, your likeness captured, still, as if you had never once moved.
Your likeness will become the inspiration for creations of other likenesses. Your brothers and sisters connected through art, frozen in flight just as you were, but wearing different finery. I thank you for that moment and for sharing that pose on a long ago day. By creating your likeness over and over, I ensure that you will never be forgotten, even if you are confused for others. I however, will always know who you are.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: July 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"The Bee!"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
I love when bees visit my garden, flitting from flower to flower. They are so industrious. At each flower they pick up more and more pollen until finally, with laden legs, they wend their way home. Watching them I am amazed at how important they are for our survival and the survival of many other species. In fact, some organizations have listed them as the most critical creature. Without them, pollination as we know it will not happen and many species will be unable to adapt to the loss of the bee.
So I do my best to protect this small fragile creature. I create a garden full of flowers, free of pesticides and chemicals. I give them places to hide and safely rest hidden from the birds. I have done well enough, that my garden has become a bee city and I am the visitor. This pleases me. The garden is both their home and their worksite and I would not have it any other way. Instead, I sit back, put my feet up, relax and let the laziness wash over me as they buzz through their daily chores.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: June 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, bamboo substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 4 inches x 4 inches
Hours to make: over 8 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"The Blue Lizard"
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Availability: Artwork no longer available.
Meaning:
The desert stretches out red and white, its surface gently curving. The heat and sun reflect on the surface, making me think of hot days and dry air. Over the top the lizard runs, cool as the blood that flows within its body. Unlike me, it is able to survive extremes of temperature. I long to run for shelter. Yet I continue to lie under the harsh sun, watching as the lizard scurries across the desert surface busy with its daily chores.
As a child I was lucky to spend many days in the changing colors of the desert beyond the reach of the internet. Camping trips were a time of observation, for absorbing the colors, sights and sounds of the world around me. The memories of these trips stay with me, even now that I am half a world away in another country and a very different time zone.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: June 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Two Worlds Reflected"
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Availability: Artwork no longer available.
Meaning:
This piece is an incredibly personal piece, a reflection of where I come from and who I am. I see it as a reflection of Sunrise and Sunset, North and South, Child and Adult, two worlds connected by a thin line.
AUSTRALIA: Sunset. A child in the Southern Hemisphere.
As a child I grew up watching the sun set outside the huge back windows of my childhood home in Australia. Every night was different and spectacular and full of my favorite colors - bright reds, strong oranges, brilliant yellows, vivid pinks and purples, just like the country to which I belonged. As a child, the sunset was the thing I always saw, a house facing west meant sunrises were usually over by the time I made it outside. Sunsets in Australia gave me a huge sense of space and of being a small part of a large world, a world that stretched forever.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Sunrise. An adult in the northern hemisphere.
As an adult I left Australia and went northwards to America. In the USA, my world flipped. I started to see sunrises more than sunsets (work and traffic helps!) and saw that they shared the same colors as the sunsets I had watched as a child, yet they were slightly different. The colors were softer here, the horizon was less expansive in the area I settled. Now when I look out the horizon ends at the trees, the sense of space and of being a small speck in an infinite universe is no longer present.
I have wondered about this change in the sense of space. Is it due to the sheer number of people? Physically there are many more people in the USA than Australia will ever hope to see. Is it because I am older? I am an adult now and as a result the world shrinks down in size and is less overwhelming. In the end though I think it comes to something ephemeral- the light. The light in Australia is different to here. It is bright, strong and intense, and thus it creates a different color palette and a different experience to where I now reside.
I am still to visit, but I imagine based on the paintings I have seen, that the light in Santa Fe has similar properties to the light in Australia and perhaps then it shares that same sense of unbounded horizons too. When creating “Two Worlds Reflected” I set out to create a straight forward piece about a reflection. I instead feel that this work took on a direction of its own: it reflects how I see each place that I call home.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: June 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Flame Dragon"
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Availability: Artwork not currently available.
Meaning:
On wings I rise through the blackest night. My scales glow like a warm fire lighting the darkness. I can be seen for miles. Am I bad or good? The villain of your story or the hero? I can be both or either and have been all stages in between. Yet still I am a mythical creature. A figment of someone’s imagination developed and expanded upon over millennia, until now. Now I consider myself a species unto myself whose family history can be traced back through to your earliest stories.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: May 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, glass substrate, polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Atlantic Ocean"
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Availability: Artwork no longer available.
Meaning:
Sometimes a day embeds itself in your memory. At the time it is like any other day, perhaps more pleasant than most, but nothing that you expect you would remember over and over again. Yet, it becomes a day that you constantly visit, remembering sites, smells, the feel of the wind and the colors of that day.
So it began one day for me. We drove 6 hours in one day to spend 3-4 hours on the shoreline of Assateague Island. It was November so cold and windy. We walked, we dug in the sand, we visited the small museum they had created, and we took a ton of photos. Perhaps all those photos is what made the difference between a day remembered and a day forgotten. (Although I have many other well-photographed days that I forget until I once again take a look at the photos.)
I find memory a fickle beast. Why do we remember some things so well and never a trace is remembered of other things? Why are some memories promoted over others? I know I will never know the answer to this question, and even if I did find it, would I even remember it?!
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: May 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, glass substrate, polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Life on the Wing"
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Availability: Part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Beadwork. Will be on display to the public for viewing in August 2023.
Meaning:
Monarchs visited my garden every year until this one. I do not know why this year in particular they did not make their annual stop in my garden to rest, feast and lay their eggs. I do know that this year they were placed on the endangered list due to their precipitous drop in population numbers. I also know that in my neighborhood the use of sprays to control the caterpillar and mosquito population has increased.
I created this artwork to celebrate the life of the Monarch butterfly, not to mourn its potential demise. This artwork was my interpretation of the journey the butterfly took to get to my backyard every summer. The air to us looks calm and still, but for a butterfly the wind currents are swirling around them requiring constant navigation as they head north every year. For such an investment of energy, food is an important ingredient and thus the background is yellow to represent the nutrition they require on the way.
I hope my butterflies return. I miss my flame-red summer friends and the bright splash they made in my garden. I miss being able to watch them create their cocoons and then see those cocoons turn into butterflies. I hope this artwork inspires all of us to make safe havens for butterflies and that next year we will all be visited by summer friends wending their way on their perilous journeys to our backyard gardens.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: March 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, wooden substrate, polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 16 inches x 20 inches
Hours to make: over 160 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Max the Pug"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
Max is his family's Apollo. He is the Sun God and the world revolves around him. Max is a mix of a chihuahua and a pug. An adorable mix and exceedingly cute. He is loved by his owners. Today he is an elderly gentleman, but in creating this piece, I wanted him to appear as the God he is!
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: January 2021
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, glass substrate, polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 11 inches x 14 inches
Hours to make: over 80 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.