Clare Wuellner

About the artwork

Scientist by Training; Artist at Heart.

Understanding science has amplified my wonder at the beauty of living things and this, in turn, informs my art.

Photography, artistry, and imagination intertwine with my passion for living things to create images that will astonish you and change the way you look at the natural world.

The germ of each work is a photograph of a tree.

With each modification I make to the photograph, the work speciates from the original capture and draws attention to something extraordinary about the tree.

In some works, I emphasize the architecture of the tree. In others, I use the tree’s branches as outlines for the subject matter found in the negative space among the branches. Some show trees with the amplified vibrancy that I see.

All of them have stories.
colorful, mixed media, representations of nature/landscapes, photography, bold, abstract, large format, prints
$20-$50, $50-$100, $100-$250, $250-$500, $500-$1000, $1000-$5000

About the Artist

I came to Austin in 1997 to study fire ants at UT. The plan was to finish a postdoc here and then move elsewhere to pursue the next stage of a career in academia. Austin had more to offer than I could ever have imagined. I jumped off the academic train and have lived here for 25 years now.

In 2018, I was thrown from a horse, and found myself on the ground in a jagged heap.
I suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury, which muted many of my strengths and competencies and impacted my cognition and memory as well as my ability to talk, walk, and balance.
I have had months of physical, occupational, speech, and psychological therapy to rewire my brain and retrain nerves and muscles. Even though my progress has been good, I’ll never really get back to “normal.” I'm beginning to make my peace with that.

Having a TBI required that I rethink my life's path because I couldn’t do most of the things I usually did and the things I had planned to do were off the menu.

Being an artist is something I’ve wanted to be since childhood. And so, I have been able to embrace art and thinking creatively as my life. I am compelled to make art—I really have no choice in the matter. Art is my life.

I live with my better half and three nearly-fledged children in a house filled with love.