Today we’d like to introduce you to Cindy Cuba Clements.
Cindy, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I have a rather unconventional path to being an artist. I was a creative kid, and adored my weekly art classes in a neighborhood teacher’s basement. I loved the study of art and art history. My mother would even let me skip school at times for surreptitious visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Whitney in NYC! However, I took a more “academic” path and in my young 20s, I became corporate attorney on Wall Street. This work was excruciatingly soulless to me and I stopped practicing law when my first child was born. Later, when my youngest began preschool, I began painting.
I knew immediately that I had found my passion and since that time, I have worked tirelessly painting and exploring other types of mixed media work. I have studied since with a number of wonderful teachers in the Boston area: John Murray, Chuck Holtzman, Bob Siegelman, Deborah Putnoi and Aparna Agrawal, to name a few. I have also found myself among a community of very strong, talented artists who greatly influence my work and perspective on art-making.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
As an abstract painter, I find joy in color and the exploration of paint and mark-making. Yet most important to me is my ability to express myself through my art. My art serves as an emotional diary. Sometimes the expression is raw and palatable, laid out on the canvas, exposing my inner core like an open book. Other times it is contained, packaged tidily in geometric abstractions or meditative blocks of color. My most recent works express elements of each. If you look closely you can see the journey on the canvas, how I found the need to reign in expression that became too fraught, or how I needed to find a release in work that was too contained. I don’t feel the need to convey a particular message to my viewers; however, I want them to feel something.
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
I’ve thought a lot about this question. For seven years and until just a few weeks ago, I was a council member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is the state agency that funds the arts and humanities. We worked hard to consider how best to support individual artists as well as how to encourage cities, towns and the Commonwealth to invest in their own creative economies. I think with more funding, we could do more to elevate the status of artists, to provide more opportunities for creative work and provide business and marketing support.
As for the city of Boston in particular, I think that Mayor Walsh has taken a good step in elevating his Chief of Arts and Culture to a cabinet position and in devising a cultural agenda for the city. However, as Boston grows and development expands throughout the city, I think it is harder for artists to find adequate living and work spaces, and this is a serious problem. We cannot afford to have our artists leave the city – they/we add too much to its vibrancy.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Right now, I am really excited about a collaboration among a fabulous group of five incredibly strong, talented, women artists. We are calling ourselves RUCKUS and we are opening a pop-up gallery on June 25 in a gorgeous, pristine, space at 1327 Boylston Street in the Fenway area of Boston. This is a powerhouse group: Adrienne Shishko, Caron Tabb, Jane Feigenson, and Emma Gelbard. If you don’t know them yet you should.
I also have work up currently at the Mosesian Center for the Arts and a pop-up gallery on Washington Street in Newton. I also love showing off my work at my studio in Newton and am happy to make appointments for visits.
Contact Info:
- Website: cindycubaclements.com
- Email: cindy@cindycubaclements.com
- Instagram: @cindyclementsart
Image Credit:
Photos taken by Cindy Cuba Clements.
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