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Bio-Sketch
Claire Carew was born in Guyana and is
of African, Arawak and European ancestry. She began her visual
arts career over 25 years ago with a Bachelor of Arts from the
University of Guelph and studies at private art schools.
Carew also holds a Diploma in Education, a Visual Arts
Specialist from McGill University and has completed studies in
drama at the University of Toronto. Carew’s work has been
shown in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Her work is also
in private collections in Brussels, England, Guyana and Russia.
more bio
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Claire still
remembers fondly her loving father sending first class
tickets for herself, Mrs Carew, and sisters Vivvette,
Corinne and Debbie to travel from Guyana to Canada in
1967. Luckily, they visited EXPO-1967, the world
exhibition held in Montreal in that year, before moving
on to their new home in Vancouver. Mrs. Carew is the
"political one who gives me all the news hot off the
press", says Claire.
Claire went to
secondary schools in the provinces where dad worked .
Art, she explains, came to her "naturally". A distant
relative is renowned Guyanese novelist Jan Carew. In
Toronto, she graduated from the Ontario College of Art
and then did a B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of
Guelph, also in Ontario province, where she was an
outstanding student.. Last year, she completed her
Masters of Art at Institututo Allende/ University
Guanajuato in Mexico.
The Artist as Social Activist
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Carew has a remarkable
canvas on her living room wall. It is an
essay of powerful images of spirituality,
conquest, struggle, resistance,
self-assertion. Here is the struggle of the aboriginal against conquest, there’s
the brown-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe,
here are John Carlos and Tommy Smith
with fists raised in Mexico, there is the
back of the Mexican maiden slowly
receding away, and at the center the
native face with clear eyes gazing back,
neither in defiance nor humility, but just
“returning the gaze” as Claire puts it.
Scattered around her neat
semi-detached home in Toronto’s west end are paintings
ranging from rich to subdued tones, all commanding your
attention. There is a lot of power in these pictures,
belying the gentle Guyanese tone of Carew’s strongly
Guyanese accented words. But there is nothing “soft”
about Carew when she asserts,
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“As a woman you don’t have too
much freedom. So the least you can do is paint what
you want to paint. That’s when you can get your
freedom. Because in society a woman is always told
what she ought to be. So art is one way a human
being can express herself.”
Claire Carew:
Giving Voice Through Art
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Table
Claire Carew ::
Artist
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Physically
disabled, she used a wheel chair when need be. She was
openly bisexual and of Indigenous, Spanish, and Jewish
ancestry. An accomplished artist and a member of the
communist party she voiced her opinions often in
demonstrations. One of her last photographed public
demonstrations was in support of the people of
Guatemala.Today she would be
considered an environmentalist as her work often depicts
landscapes animals and flowers. Her emotional and
physical pain many of us know of personally. She gives
meaning to our vulnerabilities. Her struggles are
ours, her beliefs and values we share and support. Long Live Frida is
indeed true. She continues to live in the hearts and
minds of many people. She is a part of us and will
continue to live as long as we continue to identify with
her trials and triumphs. Frida the artist. Frida the
communist. Frida the feminist. Frida the naturalist.
Homage to Frida Kahlo |
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updated 1 November 2007 |
