Clare Breen

Clare Breen is the learning curator at VISUAL, Carlow. She features in Episode Three of This is Art Club! in Series Two. In the episode, she demonstrates how to make a cyanotype image.

Clare works with community groups, schools and artists to develop learning programmes that build strong ties with communities inside of and beyond the walls of institutions.

She has a degree in Fine Art from NCAD and a Master in Education in the Arts from the Piet Zwart Institute in the Netherlands.  Clare is particularly interested in collaborating with artists and researchers who are curious about the dialogues that can arise when their work enters the public sphere.

What was your own journey to becoming an artist?

I loved art growing up - art and English were my favourite subjects in school. I always made lots of art outside of school including painting, sculptures, murals, cooking, gardening etc.

I decided to go to art school and I studied printmaking in NCAD in Dublin. When I graduated, I put on lots of exhibitions with my friends, plus other artists from college. I joined a studio called Basic Space and worked on an outdoor community garden and gallery.

I also worked in some galleries as an intern. Then I moved to the Netherlands to study a Master's in Education in Art as I wanted to work in galleries. Over there, I began to make ceramics and now I work in what is called socially engaged art.

Tell us about the work you make / your practice / describe what you do?

Socially engaged art means I usually make artworks in collaboration with other people, including children and adults. I work with other people to develop ideas and projects - we make these artworks together.

Sometimes this happens in the gallery I work in, called VISUAL in Carlow, or this happens outside the gallery in lots of different kinds of places. I think I like working in this way, as I used to get lonely working all on my own.

What exactly is a cyanotype?

A cyanotype is a blue image made with the sun.

It is one of the oldest photographic processes. To put it simply, a material, such as paper or fabric is coated with a mixture of chemicals, made from iron compounds, objects are then placed on the material and it is exposed to the sun.

The places where the light of the sun hits the material turn blue and the places that are covered by an object stay white!

How was the cyanotype invented?

The cyanotype was invented by Sir John Herschel accidentally in 1942 while trying to figure out how to make a photograph.

Many people didn't really like it as they thought the monochromatic blue colour wasn't very beautiful, but Anna Atkins, a friend of Herschel, explored the process with great enthusiasm. She produced the first ever book of photographs using the process!

Can you make a cyanotype easily at home?

It is easy to produce a cyanotype at home if you buy a set of pre-coated fabrics or paper. All you will need is water and some objects and images to make prints!

You can get this online from art materials suppliers. If you want to buy the chemicals to use at home it is a lot more complicated – I would recommend the pre-coated fabrics as it’s safer and more straightforward.

What materials do you like to work with?

I love ceramics the most of all materials I work with, but I also make lots of cyanotypes at the moment, collages and drawing. I also really like to make paintings and sculptures.

Tell us about a typical week at Visual Carlow?

VISUAL is a really exciting place to work. All weeks are different - it depends if we have an exhibition on display, or if we are installing a new show.

When an exhibition is on, my week is divided into researching and planning different workshops.

This is really fun as I get to think about an exhibition in a lot of detail and come up with ideas that help groups learn more about an artist's work.

I work with other artists to plan learning events. For example, we might plan a cyanotype workshop for people to collaborate on, or a sculpture project.

During a regular week, I might give around 4 tours and workshops to different groups of adults and children.

I do lots of planning and emailing and meetings of course! But I get to meet loads of really interesting artists who are visiting or working in the building.

We also have a theatre at VISUAL so we show plays, cinema, comedy, music and lots more in there. I learn so much every day in my job and I meet so many interesting people who are totally committed to making art.

What kind of art do you love to make?

I love making big, messy things with big groups of people. I also make collaborative ceramics using a practice called Breadfellows' Chats.

This is a way for two people to make a ceramic object together. I believe that the conversations that happen between two people making one piece of work can really bring people closer together.

What’s the art scene like in Carlow?

Carlow is very busy and exciting, depending on the time of the year. In the Summer we have the Carlow Arts Festival and the Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas.

These are really busy times and there are so many artists and art events everywhere! Other times of the year it is a bit quieter, but our theatre is so busy that there's always events on and things to see and do.

I love during term time, when we have loads of students coming through the galleries in big groups for visits and workshops.

How do you challenge yourself creatively?

I think the most important thing for me is to regularly go see other artist's work, whether this is visiting exhibitions, reading books, watching films or online talks with other artists.

If I have spent a week where I didn't find out about a new artist or artwork I miss it, I feel like I haven't eaten good food. I also have to meet other artists and talk about their work with them, what they're making and why.

This is extremely important and these conversations challenge me a lot.

The theme of This Is Art! 2023 is "Inspiration" - have you any tips or tricks for young artists who might struggle with "inspiration" or who say, " I just can't get inspired."

I think inspiration is not always glamorous, like a eureka moment, or like a lightning bolt of something awesome all at once.

I think you have to just show up every day in the studio and make something. Inspiration doesn't just hit us. We have to make space for it to come into something. For example, if you're working on a piece of sculpture, you usually don't see the finished sculpture perfectly in your mind's eye before you start, usually people begin with a kind of idea and then figure it out as they go along.

Each little decision we make as we go along, changes the thing, there can be mistakes and accidents that we decide to leave in, I think of this as inspiration.

 The inspiration is the courage to say “hmmm, I didn't expect it to look like that... ok let’s keep going”. I am more of a believer of making space for all of these little inspirations to happen in the process of making something.

For that to be possible though, you have to be there doing it!

What advice would you give anyone who wants to be professional artist, or pursue a career in the arts?

You need to keep working every day, this is hard if you don't have a 9 – 5 job. You also should pursue the things that you love and that bring you joy. Nothing is better than getting into a flow state and realising a while later that you forgot about time passing you were enjoying yourself so much!

I think you need to think with people, to share, to be open, to learn from your friends. I think great art doesn't come out of competition, it comes from doing things together and from collaboration.

It's also really important to make the things you want to see in the world, put on the events you want to go to and be involved in. Each new generation of artists makes the word anew or reflects the world from their own perspective.