Ariel McClearin

I was born in Rock Falls, Illinois where I lived until I was fourteen. I began living in Germany in high school and, during that time, was able to travel across Europe: Italy, France, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Mallorca, and Switzerland. I am at my heart a performance artist and spent my adolescence participating in musicals ranging from “Into the Woods” to “Guys and Dolls.” Since leaving the performing arts after high school to pursue my business degree, I have been exploring with fashion design and have aspirations to start my own fashion line. Designers like Kate Spade and Minju Kim have inspired both my fashion – and my paintings – with their unique sense of patterns and color composition. I maintain a love of dance and spend time at the ballet watching shows such as "Swan Lake" and "Giselle." I started painting as a creative outlet during quarantine this year. I wanted to capture a range of emotions that I was unable to express in other creative outlets. I like abstraction and pattern for its ability to reflect emotion as well as for how it allows for open-ended interpretations. I draw inspiration from artists like Kindah Khalidy who uses bold colors and shapes in her work, as well as the Abstract Expressionist Adolph Gottlieb and his use of glyphs and symbols to suggest meaning. I would love to merge my painting practice and love of fashion by exploring textile printing and using the same loud colors to draw in my audience. Up until this point I have only created and shown my art to close friends but am excited to branch out to a wider audience.