Life Stories: Eileen Claveloux

Hampden Pop-up Gallery in Bartlett Hall, Rm 156, Main Gallery
September 14 - October 14, 2022
Artist Reception: Wednesday, September 14, 5-7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Wednesday, September 14, 6-6:30 p.m.

 

Artist Statement
This is a series I have been working on for several years that combines photo collage with writing. The images consist of as many as 10 to 100 photos or pieces of photos in each piece that I combine to create a somewhat seamless looking, somewhat skewed image. Once printed, I handwrite a stream of consciousness piece that includes family story and history, concerns, thoughts about my children and grandchildren and memories of people no longer here. I relate these thoughts to the places, ranging from a bridge in Holyoke to Leverett, Sunderland, the Connecticut River, Great Island in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, to New Jersey. When I started taking the photos for this project I had recently moved and was ruminating on the temporary nature of my moves and the moves of my ancestors. In the family members I have knowledge of, there are no ancestors who have lived in any one place for more than a generation. From Armenian genocide survivors on one side, to westward travel on a wagon train on another, they seemed to keep moving. Perhaps because of this I am drawn to creating a record of locations that have meaning to me. These pieces are portraits of places as well as of myself. They often portray me in some form, whether as shadow, feet (homage to David Hockney’s photo collages from the 1980s), as well as in the writing about myself, my family and the places we have become a part of and that have become a part of me.

Eileen Claveloux Bio
Eileen Claveloux lives in Sunderland, Massachusetts. Born in Delaware and raised in New Jersey, she received a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a MEd from Westfield State University. Her work has been exhibited internationally and more recently at the Springfield Museums (October, 2020 - January, 2021). In 2005, she was an artist in residence in Yerevan, Armenia for an exhibition commemorating the 90th anniversary Armenian genocide. And in 2015 she presented her work related to the genocide to the Hrant Dink Foundations in Istanbul, Turkey. Claveloux has taught at several area colleges, including UMass, and for several years served as media arts teacher at Easthampton High School.