DNA

Claire Fleming Staples
 issue of Northwest Review.

I once read that an artist is one of the most dangerous members of society because of their ability to move through socio-economic sectors. I want to be dangerous to the institutions and concepts that produce cruelty and I want to be part of the solution that flips the switch from a strategy of extraction and dominance to one of cooperation, joy, equity and ecological balance. Politically this is what drives my work. In my visual media I’m working in a very spiritual and intuitive and emotional way, trying to show something I feel deeply and trying to engage people in that kind of knowing. I’m sharing visions, dreams, my understanding of how energy works. I’m healing myself and trying to understand more what it means to be human, to be alive in this universe and inviting the viewer to do that with me.

Born in Philadelphia in 1987, Claire Fleming Staples is a multimedia artist living and working in Oakland, California. She is an active participant in under- ground DIY music and art communities, where her social practice includes man- aging a QTPOC-centered art studio and gallery space, SLURP. Her work can be viewed at <www.claireflemingstaples.com>.