Gifted Forest – Clare Day – Week Three

02 Jun 2020

Week Three of Virtual Forest of Imagination 2020 and we showcase the working installation of artist Clare Day. Clare, who works in clay and print, and also on socially engaged projects, has worked with the Forest of Imagination since it began seven years ago, her Clay Forest has been an inspiration to thousands of members of the public who have visited Forest of Imagination over the years and enjoyed making their own contribution to her Clay Forest, using their hands and a piece of clay.

This year Clare is working on a new project for our Virtual Forest, entitled Gifted Forest, here she explains the concept behind it:

“Gifted Forest brings together several thoughts I have been having about trees, creativity, wellbeing, and coming together for a shared purpose. Planting a tree is a small act of optimism that is good for ourselves, our community and our planet. Gifted Forest is intended to mirror this. Each person makes a drawing of a tree, and when I stitch the trees together there will be a collective forest that is more than the sum of it’s parts.

I wanted to reclaim the word gifted; some people think that individuals are ‘gifted’ artists, but I think we are all artists and we are all gifted. There are also more literal reasons for the word, the trees will be gifted to the forest, and trees are a gift to us all.

The idea of reusing a discarded artwork came from my own working practice. As a dyslexic I don’t like to start with a piece of white paper with straight edges. I often tear up old artworks, use found and recycled things, and make paper by pulping and recycling my old drawings. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone’s trees.

“I love to work on projects that allow me to collect and present everyone’s art works collectively. Just like a real forest, our forest is made up of lots of individual drawings but when they come together they all have equal value.”