Artist. Collector. Shaman.
Impresario. Patron. Canadian. Blissful Martyr. Production Designer. Vegetarian. Clare creates art. Recently “Recycled Art” or art made from discarded materials. Take a look but try to think of something to say besides “Oh my Gawd” – or his favorite; “Why would someone do that?”. Groupings of curious pieces often take the form of furniture and many of his sets boast of containing millions if not merely hundreds of thousands of materials. Scrabble tiles, Bottlecaps etc. Raised in Ontario Canada and schooled south of Tinsel Town , Clare currently weaves his magic from a studio in the foothills of Los Angeles . He’s still a regular contributor in the Entertainment Industry while creating artifacts at an astonishing pace. His multiple evil twins can be seen, omnipresent, at nearly every swap meet and garage sale between Palm Springs and Ojai. I met Clare in the middle years, between fire and time travel, between 20 and 40, during the halcyon days at 1313 Harbor. He was teaching a bronze casting foundry class at Cal State Long Beach in the evenings and running the Entertainment Art Department circus at Dizneyland by day. (here I dodge word search technology). Known to be abusive, rewarding and a cargo van flipper, I would need volumes to skim the surface. 1984 to 1990 saw the production of amazing local and worldwide events and fetes lead by Clare and his legendary team. Flying so high and so fast ended badly and details of such times are best left for the eventual tell-all novella. Images have been known to appear but rest assured they are staged recreations and not original copyrighted materials. This is only an introduction. Explore and revisit this site from time to time to see what is to be seen. -Tobibonanza |
Among my earliest memories are of organizing disparate collections of youthful infatuations into collections. Shoeboxes of quartz crystals, an encyclopedia with hundreds of pressed leaves between the pages, long ago abandoned keys amassed on multiple rings…
The care and maintenance of the many collections became a retreat into a private world of cross referenced obsessions. Containers for the many items became an integral part of the organizing function. Roll top desk with dozens of cubbyhole drawers, filing cabinets, tool chests…..
Childhood rituals have grown with adult veneers and have turned into a manifestation of obsessive compulsive order. Art has been added as a legitimizing manifestation that allows a semblance of sanity. The collections themselves have become a source of raw material for manipulation. Materials are assembled in vast numbers so that they take on form and substance beyond the single unit appeal.
– Clare