About Clare Arentzen

I currently live in New Hampshire, working as a guide in the White Mountains. I’m constantly playing in the mountains, skiing, hiking, biking, and rock climbing. I love to forage and collect interesting natural objects and materials, and use what I find and see in nature to inform the art I create.

I’ve been an artist and a naturalist for as long as I can remember. I’ve always existed on the line between art and science, my two loves, which both very much inform the way I see the world, the art and ideas I produce, and the interests I pursue. I earned a Certificate in Visual Arts from Princeton University along with my Ecology and Evolutionary Biology degree in 2014, and went on to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a Post-Baccalaureate program in 2015. I completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2016, and have since been “living in the woods”, trying to gain as much intimate knowledge of the landscape around me, the things that grow there, and the unique rolls they play. To me, observation is an art form, which sometimes produces an artwork, and sometimes only a concept.

Looking through the portfolios I have on this website, it’s pretty clear my artistic practice is not one of consistency. There’s the “high-brow art school” me, the “art for the joy of it” me, and the “meticulous craftsperson me”. Neither is superior, and I hope to simply let myself create what feels right in the moment.

I was told several years ago that my work had a “midwestern existentialism” about it. Since then, I’ve been working towards understanding that enigmatic phrase through my process and my material interests.

Midwestern Existentialism, n.

1. Philosophy recognizing that an individual is a free and responsible agent who determines his or her own trajectory in life, with a Midwestern frankness in response to reality and an emphasis on labor as a means of self-determination.

2. Philosophy stating that meaning is decided in the act of existing, an existence characterized by authenticity, self-motivation, and hard work – the farmer mentality.

3. Philosophy, recognizing the freedom in accepting the absurdity of reality, thus allowing and celebrating that things are what they are