Claudia Kreiss began making collages in the mid-80’s and exhibited her work at a variety of venues in Hoboken. In 2010 she attended a Mixed Media and Collage class at the Art Students League, NY, NY, and was awarded a “red dot” (best-in-show) for a piece she exhibited at that class’s annual students’ salon exhibit. Since then she has been committed to her art practice and continues to attend the League’s only unstructured, open-studio class, which gives her the freedom to explore her creativity among like-minded artists. Over the past 16 years her work has evolved into abstraction and may integrate words, numbers, and representational images.

Artist Statement

Claudia’s work is spiritual in nature and blends shape, color, form, and gestural marks to explore their potency as a visual language.

Claudia begins a painting without a plan, using her non-dominant hand, working intuitively, and giving herself over to the materials and the power of her  subconscious. She uses acrylic paint, ink, graphite and a variety of tools to draw, make marks, and paint. Small scraps of paper are often collaged onto the canvas. Words, numbers, and representational images may be included. Conscious editing begins with the alteration, elimination, addition, and/or obscuring of elements; unexpected, unusual shapes become part of her vocabulary.