Clair Morey is an artist based in New York City who utilizes stills from her favorite movies in her large-scale paintings in order to immerse the viewer into the feelings and sensations of sci-fi and horror films. She focuses on a subject of these genres which she feels has been overlooked for too long: the female protagonist. In this interview, we talk about Clair’s art and the boost in creativity and mental health which can come from belonging to a community of artists.

AIR: Can you describe how you use films in your painting? We see screen grabs, right? 

Clair: Right. When I first went to grad school at Miami University in Ohio, I was using film stills - projecting them directly onto the canvas and painting from there. I try to build up the layers through different types of projected images.

I've always been really attracted to psychological horror and sci-fi films because I feel like they really have a sense of severity that I'm interested in trying to depict with my work. I like their abrupt sense of violence. When I first went to grad school, that violence was seen in just the brushstrokes and the technique of the painting. Now, I feel the still images are like collage on the canvas. Also I'm using acetate and layering that on top of the regular print out, so it has this ghostly sort of imagery about it with layering. 

[INSERT OF EARLIER TEXTURED WORK, DETAIL SHOTS]

For a recent painting I'm working on, I'm focusing on a specific film called Possession , which is the first time in a painting that I've focused on a single film and only taken stills from it. In the films I’m drawn to, I'm really interested in how the female character is portrayed in that film and the relationship between the husband and wife. Her acting in that film is absolutely incredible and moving. Her vulnerability in those scenes is something that I'm really attracted to. 

In Blade Runner 2049, I really like the character Luv in the film. She is another female character in film that has a solid amount of complexity about her. It's not perfect. It could go much more in depth, but I like it when things are depicted with an overlap between the idea of goodness or badness. These specific characters have aspects of both, and it's one of those things where there's such a heavy dose of reality within something like that - specifically with the female characters. 

A: So you think that duality of experience humanizes them in a sense?

C: Absolutely. It's also a process of watching the films. The characters I connect to the most, I tend to project my own identity and experiences onto. So it feels like this circular experience between projection and repression, especially when I’m making paintings that are so specifically tied to past traumatic events in my life.  I go through phases of projecting these experiences on the characters in a relational sort of way and then also repressing it by working through the painting. That process comes out when I work and while I'm watching films in general. 

A: It seems like you're using this other mode of storytelling to tell your own story. 

C: Definitely. It makes it easier in a way. When watching it, there's that distance between you and the actual screen or the film that plays out in front of you. Yeah, being able to have that just sort of weirdly feels less personal, even though it's extremely personal. 

[INSERT PAINTING IN QUESTION] 

I'm always interested in the gaze. Whether it's the audience or even the characters in the film. So if that person is looking directly into the camera or looking away, I like thinking about the containment of that sort of thing in and of itself, because everything around it is obviously trying to build this specific space, which is the only thing you see through the image. I like to think about that containment and how it really does generate this otherworldly quality to it.

A: When did you start being drawn to these films? You said you've always been drawn to sci-fi thrillers. I guess that means this started back in your childhood?. 

C: I would say so. I'm trying to think of all the books that I read when I was younger. One that probably stands out the most to me, when I was younger, was reading A Wrinkle in Time. I love the idea of traveling through these distant spaces - then I also like the lack of attainability when it comes to those spaces. I guess with sci- fi specifically, it’s relating it to the reality that we experience and thinking about how we can't attain that sense of travel in the universe. We're stuck in this specific area, which feels very vast, but comparatively, it's extremely small. 

What I like to think about with sci-fi is that all these things are happening in the universe currently while we're sitting here with other planets and the sun. These things are all functioning around us and it's something that we will never be able to physically, directly experience. Something about that is really interesting to me, and simultaneously makes me feel weirdly claustrophobic. That's why I like sci-fi. 

A: Does it provide a sense of escapism for you?

C: Absolutely! That's a big aspect of some of my paintings. However, the painting I’m working on now I don't think has that same form of escapism. It's actually really about confronting trauma in my life. But the past paintings I've made are, specifically with sci-fi, really about escapism. Films, in general, are mostly about escapism for me. We’re so connected to this screen. But being able to pause it takes that still out of its own narrative and allows me to reconstruct it and tailor it more to my own individualized experiences.   

A: Do you see yourself in the character of the film, Possession, that you are currently working with? Do you identify yourself with her in a way?

C: For sure. I identify with her sense of dread and the violence she experiences in the film. In my life, I’ve related very directly to those. And again, the breakdown of these relationships and feeling a loss of identity. Trying to restructure that is something that I'm very interested in with that film.

A: Who are your favorite filmmakers? 

C: John Carpenter is good. I really like Cronenberg a lot. His films specifically leave you feeling helpless in a way. I’ve always been attracted to films where it feels like you have a sense of dread before, during, and then after the film. It has left a lasting imprint on you. That’s because I focus on horror. How extreme it is interests me in that experience, and I want to personally experience it but from a distance. 

A: You said that violence can carry over into your brush strokes and your technique. Does the abruptness of that violence and the size of space it takes up in your mind play into the size of your paintings? You work on a large scale. 

C: Yeah, it definitely plays into the size. I've always really liked working on large scale paintings. I started making large (over six feet) paintings in 2014. So it was the last year of my undergrad. I like how it relates so directly to the human body, which is something that's really important, obviously, for portraying violence inflicted on someone. Being able to relate bodily in that way is really important, and it makes you feel as though you're actually entering a space. 

Large scale paintings are not passive in any way whatsoever. It's something that you have to approach and recognize that it’s larger than you.I've always been interested in portals and that sort of other dimensionality about something. I guess that goes back to the sci-fi works where you feel like you're entering something.  You're leaving one spot and going to another through your mind. 

A: That's very powerful when you think about it. Place and space are powerful in general. How did growing up in Columbus, Ohio, influence your work? I mean, did you go to art museums around there? Were you experiencing the art culture in Columbus, or were you looking more at other places like New York? 

C: Growing up, I didn't really go see that much art. I would go to the art museum here and there and the Wexner Center at Ohio State. But towards the end of high school, I was lucky enough to know that I was most likely going to go into painting. Once I figured that out around Sophomore year, I started going to like the Wexner Center a lot more. I specifically remember seeing a Mark Bradford exhibition that they had there, and it absolutely changed my life to see paintings that were that massive. They feel like murals at that point. They're giant, and in seeing the collage aspects that he has on there and the materiality of those paintings,  you can see the amount of work which has been put into the painting. Visually, you can see that in the texture and the surface of the painting. That really changed my life to see that exhibition.

There was one more exhibition I saw at The Wexner Center. I believe it was Alexis Rockman. They also do these giant paintings, and they were all like depictions of future earth. It was clearly like a commentary on climate change and in relation to sci-fi, I really liked that. But it was also in relation to reality. I remember seeing those paintings as well, and that was something that heavily influenced and inspired me. 

Once I went to art school, I really didn't do much the first two years. I was doing a lot of drugs, and I didn't care about school really at all. That started about my sophomore year of high school as well. It was a thread up until I got halfway through my junior year of art school, when I began to actually make work that I was excited about and was able to fully focus on painting… I just became healthier. I was able to go see thesis shows, the students that were graduating would always have a show. They would have openings and closings, so being involved in an artist community is something that's really helped so much with just becoming who I am today as an artist. Being able to have those conversations with a community of people that you feel safe with and being able to talk about these really sometimes difficult things in your work was also life-changing for me. 

A: I can see your renewed sense of energy in your amazing work! Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure as always.