Chloe May Brown makes objects for the everyday. She uses her hands to build with clay and translates her drawings into textile designs. Chloe incorporates fabric dying, screen printing, and sewing into creating her soft objects.
Chloe lives in Portland, Maine where she works as a designer at More & Co., spends time by the ocean, and hangs out with her cat. You can see her recent work at www.chloemaybrown.com as well as on her Instagram.
1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
Recently I have been in love with screen printing as well as hand built ceramics. They both have such different appeals to me. Screen printing is clean and immediate, I am able to see my drawings translated onto fabric in an instant. Working with clay is almost the opposite. There is an element of time which is not present in screen printing, I have to be patient between the firings, I am not always sure what the outcome will be, and there is always a surprise.
2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I seem to always have a handful of projects all happening at once. I love to work this way, I find that one thing feeds off of another and something I am building in clay could inspire something entirely different that I want to make out of fabric. Right now my home studio is filled with screen printing supplies while I work on some fun new fabric designs. My desk is overflowing with fabric samples and color swatches. At my ceramics studio my shelves are filling up with vases and planters. I have been feeling so inspired by the growth and blooms this time of year, I am constantly finding ways to bring them into my home.
3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
One of the most important ingredients to my creative process is to just make. To make with no agenda or outcome in mind. This is where so many of my ideas for larger projects stem from. I can be doodling and one little aspect of a scribble will inspire a new design for a fabric.
Being outdoors is equally important to my creative process. I live on the coast of Maine and this is an inspiration for much of my work. To take a walk around my neighborhood and see what is growing or to go for a swim in the salty ocean refreshes my mind and my vision.
4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
I get joy from making simple, beautiful, useful items. I want to make items that will become a part of one’s everyday life. Many of my pieces are made with this intention, dishes to eat your meals, pillows to rest on, or maybe just a painting to hang on your wall.
5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
If I could step back just a handful of years I would want to tell myself to do and make what feels right. Don’t try to force anything to happen that is not feeling natural. When something truly feels right you will know it and you should sail on that feeling whenever you can.
Inspired by Chloe?
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