Miss Clare's Artistic Life

I've always enjoyed getting my hands in the mud.. 

Nothing more rewarding than the 8 month long process of getting my art, glass, and ceramics studio designed and built in my home in Mukilteo, WA where I live with my wonderful cats Mango and Felix and my dog, Gypsy.

I am a 28 year old graduate from University of Washington in Visual and Language Arts as well as receiving my Masters in Teaching from Western Washington University. 

Most of my artwork had been put on a hiatus in 2016-2021 when I began teaching Dance (ballet, jazz, lyrical, and tap) as well as my Masters in Teaching program.

From the years 2011 - 2016 I began to master my pottery and ceramic skills, while learning to sketch architecturally. 

Some of the beginnings of my pottery work (2011-13) looked like this...

As my education at the University of Washington began, I did not know where my passions would lead me, but I did want to continue with ceramics, where I sketched proper proportions and created some pieces that were meaningful uniquely to me...

After this first year dancing and trying out Oceanography, Astrobiology, and Native American Art courses at UW (everything I found exciting), I started to focus on my literature studies where I decided that teaching higher level education was my path. 

Eventually my schedule was working as a barista at 5am, Ballet afterwards at 9am in the Red Square, English Lit class in the early afternoon, followed by 3D arts at the UW CMA (Ceramic and Metal Arts building) until about 9pm. This is where I learned glassblowing and shop work technique and etiquette.

My larger ceramics ideas began to come to life...

My inspirations flowed from a desire to remove myself from the busy city.... I felt a toxic atmosphere...

I felt most free and understood myself when I had to keep myself centered & steady for a beautiful outcome...

All I wanted was to go back to throwing clay on a wheel (I hadn't done it since 2013) and just my luck an unexpected Throwing Class was offered in the summer of 2015. I spent the majority of my summer throwing at the CMA.... I was a perfectionist and the majority of my cups and functional art I would give as gifts to supportive friends leaving me with only some evidence of my work...

I then headed to London, England for a study abroad program in 2016 where I fell in love with Architecture and Photography and realized that I did not have the knowledge of these studies to the extent that I wanted... 

I became self-taught through Youtube, my fathers photography background, and the history of cameras...

Composition became a key-element in all of my photos, this focused me...

I rekindled my love for painting and documented my discoveries throughout England with watercolor...

When I returned from London I began my camera, dark room, and professional photography investigations with my father, Larry Lunceford...

Now, in 2022 his main focus is getting shots of different wood that can look like something living at certain angles...

Glassblowing and Art Exhibitions 2016

Teaching Dance 2017

Teaching Ceramics 2017

Graphic Design (Book cover) 2019

In 2019, my mother Deborah Long finished her first novel. She asked me to help her illustrate the graphics and design the cover of her book. We published through Amazon and having worked with more basic publishing software before, I thought the process very challenging and rewarding. 

The final product for sale on Amazon(Not a plug I swear!):

The inside illustrations:

Teaching Art, Photography, and English Language Arts at ILHS 1st semester, 2021-22 

To see more photography from these wonderful students in Semester 1, 2021-2 check out their student blog: 

ILHS Student Blogs

Light and Macro experiments at ILHS ~ November 2022