I have always been fascinated by light and reflections. Growing up in Astoria, New York, I was influenced by the light and patterns cast from the sun on buildings and the elevated train tracks. I was fortunate enough to develop as an artist from childhood and receive the attention needed to nurture my artistic pursuit. I have always felt the importance of giving back and art is the vehicle by which I contribute to my community. 

My journey as an artist began when I was accepted to New York City’s specialized High School of Art and Design. At Hunter College spending a semester studying art in Florence, Italy, I found inspiration from Renaissance buildings and art all around me. Through perseverance and practice I found my path and succeeded in becoming an artist. The journey continues. I try to grow as an artist every day in the way I see and interpret the world around me in my paintings. Through the years, being an artist has fused with who I have become as a person.

I work in a variety of styles and mediums such as watercolor, oil and acrylic paints to reflect an eclectic mix of welcoming colors and images. Landscapes, bridges and fields of flowers and paths painted outdoors suggest openness. My NYC Faces, a series of larger-than-life sized linear drawings of people in transit, are sketches, enlarged, then finished in watercolor. I expand this technique to Italy’s piazzas and other New York City scenes and places I visit. My portraits span from my NYC Faces to paintings in acrylic and oil of  people experiencing intimate moments.Viewers often share that they relate to the people in my portraits, such as mother and child, friends and family as these are universal images that evoke happy times and shared memories.

In my career, teaching visual art gave me the opportunity to combine my passion for art with nurturing and broadening the perspectives of developing artists. My expertise as an artist and an educator was acknowledged when I was selected to mentor art teachers for the NYC Department of Education. Mentoring is a rich experience which also informs and inspires my own art.

I took to the vocation of teaching Art with enthusiasm, guiding students from diverse cultures and economic backgrounds helping them practice and refine their own art skills. Together we explored many areas of fine art, ranging from manuscript illuminations to video and animation. I had the opportunity to work collaboratively on a variety of projects and grants with the cultural institutions that form the bedrock of the arts in the city, including the Morgan Library and Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of  Art, the Queens Museum and the Tribeca Film Institute.

 St. Joseph’s College and the Queens Public Library invited me to be their guest speaker and I was the keynote speaker for the Queens Historical Society Kingsland Homestead fundraiser in 2020. It was an honor to receive the art award from the Italian Heritage Cultural Committee of Queens at St. John’s University presented by former Borough President Melinda Katz in 2019. My interview as a Long Island City artist is part of the Queens Public Library's Memorial Project. My work was featured in press articles in the Bayside Times, in a cover story in LIC Magazine, as well as other media outlets.

I was named the artist in residency at Cope NYC, copenyc.org, in 2021 at the landmark Pfizer Building in Brooklyn, NY, where my NYC Faces paintings are displayed. The series was previously shown on 1,700 plus ArtOnLink kiosks screens throughout the five boroughs in July 2019. I  was recognized by the City Artist Corps Grants program with a grant to exhibit my series called #StayatHome paintings that I created during the pause in New York City from my home in Bayside. The paintings of healthy fresh food, colorful, and interesting organic shapes, documented on daily videos were on display in a solo show at The Collective Paper Factory in Long Island City in September, 2021. I document this and other work on my YouTube Channel CS Art Clare Stokolosa and my website clarestokolosa.com.

The words of artist Edward Hopper capture my sentiment: “If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” In my own words, creating works of art is, was, and always will be my vehicle of self-expression and being an artist forms the core of who I am as a person.