Sue Clancy's Blog

Opening party and an interview of me

Upcoming is the second opening of my fine art exhibit “The Owl and the Pussycat” at Burnt Bridge Cellars via Caplan Art Designs happens July 11th !

A few printed copies of my book are available at the winery or via this link (in either print or ebook forms) https://www.blurb.com/b/12431156-the-owl-and-the-pussycat-art-album

I read aloud as I page through the book in this video.

Recently I was interviewed by Allie at Introspective Ink and since it tangentially relates to my current exhibit I thought you’d like to see it – and also because I talk about being gay in Oklahoma and surviving and going on to live well. Surviving and thriving despite it all is what nonsense literature is about.

You know, FU to all of the bullies.

The interview is here

https://open.substack.com/pub/introspectiveink/p/interview-with-sue-clancy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=47p4r

I hope your week is as good as possible.

The Owl and Pussycat opening party

As they say in show business “the show must go on”… the week of my opening party for my series of paintings inspired by Edward Lear’s poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” I had a severe allergic reaction to some eye medication. Went to the doctor the day before my big event and got new medicine to combat the allergy. And the very next day, June 6, was the opening party for my fine art exhibit.

So yes. Great timing for a severe allergy.

The pics are me at the doctor’s and then wearing sunglasses to go home… The gist was, from the doctor, that it’d be good to wear sunglasses during my opening party at the winery Burnt Bridge Cellars, First Friday, June 6 2025…  So I posted on social media about my allergy and that the sunglasses will be due to the eye allergic reaction pain-in-buttness and not – I repeat, NOT, – due to any hoity-toity fancy-pantsy artistic-diva extraordinaire-ness.

I share about this here just in case anyone else needs to hear it: the creative life is seldom smooth. And that’s normal. The point isn’t the smoothness or ease – the point is to live fully, deliberately and… creatively.

So I went to my opening party wearing my sunglasses and looking forward to seeing friends!

Friends make everything better. And that’s what art and creativity are for: community.

So you can get a sense of the fun of my art exhibit opening party – here’s a video I did when the evening was barely starting! It’s also an example of the way I make art exhibits that are stories or poems you can walk around inside. And yes, I was grateful for the autofocus on my camera/phone

Despite my blurry vision I gave mini-tours of my exhibit, reciting the poem by Edward Lear and talking about how I echoed colors and shapes from painting to painting using them to foreshadow the poem events. I also told about researching old fashioned wedding colors, patterns and motifs for visual  allusions within my artworks.

I enjoyed seeing people take themselves on a tour through the poem!

And I enjoyed seeing everyone sitting to listen to music and have dinner!

Here’s a photo of two of the 3 musicians – Jesse Schaffer and his Celtic trio –  as they were setting up at the beginning of the evening. (Hear them on YouTube here)

Chef Em (in the front) did an outstanding series of Spanish inspired dishes: 3 courses each full of bold playful flavors! I swear she was echoing the poem and my artworks with her choices of food!! I was totally impressed!!

I only managed to get photos of two of the courses because people wanted me to come talk about the art! But between conversations I managed to clean all of my plates!

The first photo is of the savory salad of cantaloupe, chorizo, artichoke hearts, Manchego cheese and quince. The second photo is of the torta de Santiago with fresh strawberries. Not pictured, because I ate it right up, was a beautiful plate of spiced chicken pinchos, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, patatas bravas with garlic aioli and tomato sauce.

The wines went very well with everything!

As the light of the evening got darker I felt comfortable going without my sunglasses sometimes and my wife was kind enough to hold them for me. It made my heart happy to spend time with so many dear friends, meet some new friends, and see so many smiles!!

And literally every chair and every table was occupied… except when the people were getting more wine, second helpings of dinner or looking at my artworks!

It was a wonderful evening – eye issues aside – and a beautiful reminder of why I do the work I do … for friends and community!

P.S. during the opening party all of the copies of my art album for my exhibit were sold I have ordered more copies to be printed but it’ll be a while till they come. If you want a book sent directly to you please use this link https://www.blurb.com/b/12431156-the-owl-and-the-pussycat-art-album
However, if you want to get a book, have really good wine and see my art in person while enjoying the fun company of others at the winery – the new book copies should be there at the winery by the first Friday in July!
https://www.burntbridgecellars.com/

For more information about my art please contact Caplan Art Designs https://caplanartdesigns.com/

The Owl and Pussycat exhibit installation

At Burnt Bridge Cellars, my wife, Judy, Mark Mahan, the winery owner, and I installed my one person exhibit on Tuesday. My exhibit opening party is Friday, June 6, 2025 and the exhibit will run through the end of July. The gallery that represents my work, Caplan Art Designs, will handle questions and sales.

I appreciate other people’s ideas on display of my work because by this point I’m “too close” to all of the art and almost can’t “see it” objectively. Thankfully, they can! I think of all of my art exhibits as “stories you can walk around inside” so in my way of thinking the arrangements on the wall, how it exists in a space, is part of the art.  As I create all of the artworks, I do give a lot of thought to how the art might be displayed and what the viewer might experience.

Since my current exhibit is of one entire poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear, I wrote the stanzas on each painting (which became it’s title) and numbered each painting on the back so they could be placed and seen in reading order. Even being labeled and numbered there were many ways I could imagine my works could be displayed.

Here’s Mark and Judy in the process of hanging one of my paintings.

Judy thought of displaying it all in a clockwise circle around the winery beginning to the right of the biggest piece that has the entire poem as handwritten by me. (Video of me handwriting it is here.) Judy’s idea was a delightfully surprising way to display that I’d not thought of!! So we did it that way!

Here’s a look at the biggest piece and where it starts on the right side …

I put my exhibit statement there at the beginning. (You can also read my exhibit statement here.)

Here’s a sequence of photos following the poem around the winery

Here we are at the beginning again.

Here’s the three of us, happy with our work, and on our way to have brunch together and celebrate! I couldn’t have done it without both of them – and with the gallery’s help! My exhibit may be called a “one person” show… but there’s so many more people than just me who are essential to my exhibits existence! And I’m very grateful to them all!!

As seen, written on the blackboard in one of the above photos, the winery is encouraging reservations for dinner Friday night. The live music will be outside on the winery patio but it will be gently audible from inside the winery.

There are a few copies of my exhibit art album at the winery – primarily the album is available as a printed book or ebook online here. I like to make exhibit albums, and make social media posts like this one, and put all of my paintings online (here) so that my friends who can’t come in person can still enjoy it.

That’s what I think art is for – community.

Now I have the fun, between now and Friday, of imagining the winery filled with smiling people looking, listening, eating and drinking!

I do plan to attend the opening – for at least a short time – and I look forward to seeing long-time friends and meeting new friends!

I hope you’ll enjoy my work however you experience it!!

Nearing the Bong-tree and the runcible spoon hour

This week I’m delivering all of my new artworks for a one-person exhibit at the urban winery Burnt Bridge Cellars.

Currently my studio looks like this.

Via one of the galleries that represents my work year around, Caplan Art Designs, I’m exhibiting 13 of my newest artworks at Burnt Bridge Cellars during both June and July!

All of my artworks were inspired by Edward Lear’s poem “The Owl and the Pussycat”.

The opening party is at Burnt Bridge Cellars, First Friday June 6 2025 and my exhibit runs through to the end of July. It’s free to come look at art and listen to music – glasses of wine and dinner have a charge. Reservations for dinner are encouraged.
https://www.burntbridgecellars.com/

Here’s the exhibit statement I wrote:

“In 1867 Edward Lear wrote a poem titled “The Owl and the Pussycat” which has inspired my mixed media paintings. Lear’s time period had economic problems as well as gender based controversy somewhat like our current time. During his lifetime Lear never specified the genders of the Owl or Pussycat. I value nonsense literature because it playfully reminds us that we make meaning together using words and symbols. We can mutually seek the safety of gentle humor, the place beyond cruelty, where the Bong-tree of the heart grows.”

“They sailed away, for a year and a day,
   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows”

I’ve also turned all of my artworks into a kids book style art album because I like to do that!  The image below is of the book cover.  I’ll have a very few printed books at the opening party and ongoing access to the book in both print and ebook forms is here
https://www.blurb.com/b/12431156-the-owl-and-the-pussycat-art-album

As I wrote recently in my email newsletter I’m chuckling because the chef has included a dish that has quince in it! One of the poem stanzas that inspired my artwork says

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;”

I love the added edible dimension to my exhibit – which I think of as a poem you can walk around inside.

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;”

During the opening party there’ll be music and hopefully many hearts happily dancing by the light of the moon!

If you can’t come in person to the winery you can see all of my paintings by clicking here.

However you see my exhibit I hope it’ll raise a smile! Thank you for looking!

Framing things

I’m working on framing my fine art for upcoming exhibitions via the Caplan Art Designs Gallery this year. I’ve finished 13 new artworks to be shown, via the gallery, at the winery Burnt Bridge Cellars in June and July 2025 and these new ones along with more new art will be included in another exhibit later in October at the gallery location.

As I’ve worked on the framing I’ve been thinking: the ankle injury I had back in January 2024 has really slowed me down. For example the art framing process is taking multiple weeks whereas in pre-injury times it would have taken a few days.

I’m currently in physical therapy for my ankle and there’s a whole “routine” related to my daily efforts towards ankle rehabilitation that takes quite a chunk of time each day. At this moment I’m very aware that while my ankle issue is temporary – I am recovering and will probably fully recover eventually – one’s physical health affects everything. Work changes. Social life changes. All of it changes.

It takes a lot of daily time and attention to recover from something while also trying to maintain one’s work and personal life.

I’ve heard recently that within the U.S. government budget reconciliation bill, aka “the big beautiful  bill”, the Republicans are proposing new minimum work or volunteer requirements – something like 80 hours a month or somesuch – for anyone getting government assistance for anything health related. That’s quite a lot of time especially when considering how many hours are already consumed with doctors appointments, therapy appointments not to mention the usual life and work time.

I’m betting the Republicans don’t have any similar work/volunteer requirements for the billionaires who are getting government assistance; tax breaks, bailouts etc.

Within the budget bill the Republicans are closing or minimizing hours for government offices like the Social Security Administration, adding more work and more paperwork requirements to access programs while also proposing kicking people off of Medicaid and Medicare and destroying the Affordable Care Act. Some 13 million Americans or more could lose their healthcare.

Yes, I’ve contacted Congress about this – and will continue to do so. Here’s some contact info so you can add your voice: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/ and https://5calls.org/

To me all of this sounds like the Republicans are deliberately making a cruel nightmarish catch-22 situation for regular people trying to live life and also cope with an illness, injury or disability, however temporary or permanent, while navigating the medical and/or government systems.

While I do not personally have to navigate the government systems regarding my injury I can empathize completely with people who do. 

Managing my own ankle recovery, with the help of my wife, friends and good physical therapists and doctors, has required a lot of effort. My injury by itself has quadrupled the time it takes within a day for me to do stuff: medical stuff, life stuff and then also to do work related stuff like framing my art.

Still, like so many people, I’m persistent. And I can’t help but think that for many of us who are persisting at healing while also dealing with the healthcare system that healing is enough to do without having to fight a government system at the same time.

Yes, I’m envious of other countries who have universal healthcare and don’t have one entire party in the government acting against the well-being of the whole country!

Anyway, here’s a look at one of my just-framed paintings.

A sneak peek of my entire upcoming exhibition is here (free preview)
https://www.blurb.com/b/12431156-the-owl-and-the-pussycat-art-album

So as excited and proud as I am about my new art and upcoming exhibition I’m full of empathy right now for everyone who is recovering from or coping with a physical issue while navigating life in these crazy Republican nightmare times. I hear you, I see you and I raise my coffee cup in solidarity with you.

Some Republicans say that having empathy is sinful – but I strongly disagree.  I am empathetic and will continue to be so. In my opinion to make art is to empathize and to empathize is to make art.

Empathy and art are infinitely interlinked.

I’ll share more about my new artwork whenever I have the time and energy.

P.S. you can see my sketchbook drawings weekly here https://sueclancy.substack.com/

And here’s a link tree for more Clancy https://linktr.ee/artistclancy

Studio nonsense

Since Jan 2025 I’ve become increasingly alarmed by the US Republican regimes manipulations of words and their meanings. Specifically their tactics of outright lies, lies by ommission, goal-post moving, gaslighting, DARVO, hypocrisy, book bans, censorship, the firing of people, random closures of government departments, the cessation of record keeping, the removal of photos/documents from historical archives and many other attempts to control (or eliminate) the free, accurate, fact-based flow of information. The Republican regime is also actively trying to spread misinformation, disinformation and the use of many propaganda tactics. (I’m sure you can find plenty of examples of any of these if you need them. I’m not normalizing examples of any of the abuse with links.) Such bullies seek to drown our ability to make sense of ordinary real-life, to destroy our ability to think or talk about our experiences, to harm our capabilities to perceive and understand events or to put them into any context or make any organized response

And yet sociopathic abusive people don’t understand that despite efforts to control information/communication normal people tend to band together in order to make sense of the world – it’s a human default setting, a normal reaction, to turn to your friends and neighbors within a time of difficulty and talk – “what does this mean? what do we do now?” – and this very normal-human reaction tends to become a defense against and eventually a defeat of the abusers.

I’m aware that the USA is not the first country or government to be taken over by fascist bullies … it’s just the first time for the USA. (Just 60 days ago, as I write this post, the US had a stable, mundane, pro-democracy government!)

So in my alarm about current events I’ve been researching helpful artistic responses that have been successful in the past, in other countries, when fighting fascist hostility towards human-to-human communication and organization.

And I discovered nonsense literature! It’s the ultimate “tell the truth but tell it slant“! In times of harmful propaganda the slant of truth – and the honing our ability to make sense – is often delivered best via humor; parody, satire, irony and nonsense literature!

Let me describe (imperfectly) my personal perception of what nonsense literature is:

Nonsense literature uses imaginary words and actions, absurdly improbable things, that somehow still make sense within a story or poem. The absurdities are woven in ways that highlight that we make meaning together using mutually shared contexts and understandings. Parody, satire and irony are very close siblings of nonsense literature. But in order to be called nonsense literature the story or poem often plays with the rules of grammar, word spellings, storytelling conventions (etc) in ways that reveal – and rejoice in – our mutually shared knowledge of how we make meanings together. This focus on mutual meaning making is an active part of community care and an ongoing defense against abuse!

One quick example of a nonsense literature type of mutually-understood-via-context word – “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious“.

A quick example from real-life of a nonsense literature kind of word usage is someone saying to another person while gesturing vaguely at a group of objects “please hand me that thingamajig“. From the situational context the word thingamajig is mutually understood.

Nonsense literature dates back to Aristophanes and the play Lysistrata, produced in 411 BCE, which uses dramatic absurdities in order to protest abuse of women and advocate in favor of women’s rights.

Since 411 BCE nonsense literature has continued to be a recognized genre, peaking in popularity during times of trouble, with Rabelais, Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll being possibly the most recognized artists within the genre today.

Generally speaking nonsense literature, throughout history, has been a protest against the bullies attempting to manipulate language in order to control and dominate people. The intent of nonsense literature is that as long as we the people can remember that we make meaning/sense together and insist upon facts, evidence, verifiable truth, congruence between words and actions the bullies are much less likely to succeed and more likely to to be deposed.

Bullying only works when we accept the bully’s framing, or when we accept the bully as the sole source of “sense”.  The bully fails every time that we remember that just because a bully says a thing loudly that that is NOT what makes it sensible! Loudness does not equal logic! Bullies try to get away with their abuses by using a blizzard of propaganda tactics rather than logic or accurate meanings of words or accurate perceptions of actions and reality. The mental chaos is intended to keep communities (and communications) insensible.

Holding on tight to reality – touching the grassroots beyond the bully – can help you and others through the blizzard. The bullies are afraid of the truth – however it is expressed, via court, journalism, art, literature, science, history – which is why they try so hard to suppress both truth tellers and the language a truth teller uses and any organizations that might insist upon truth-telling or support truth-tellers and keep records. This is why it’s important to remember that refusing to reflexively believe the bully’s propaganda and insisting instead on looking for other voices means you/we can win!! Resistance to propaganda by careful awareness of language (words and images) is both self-care and community care!

The history of nonsense literature illustrates to me that throughout time one thing that consistently helped through hard times were the people preserving helpful relationships with their own selves, with each other and with reality itself.  They did that preservation by carefully using words, images and meanings as clearly, helpfully and truthfully as possible. They kept records. They wrote diaries and journals. They painted, wrote and took photos. They did it by telling and writing stories using humor and a “slant” in ways that committed acts of kindness and community care.

I digress but all of this has been on my mind as I’ve begun a new painting series for my gallery exhibits later this year.

For part of my exhibit I’m working on a series of paintings inspired by Edward Lear’s poem “The Owl and the Pussycat“. The poem was written in 1867. The US Civil War had just ended 2 years before and in England there was an upheaval about voting rights… basically there was a lot of strife around the world during that time period… as well as a rise in homophobia and misogyny and bigotry and classism. Edward Lear wrote the poem for a friend’s daughter and, my guess, probably to support his friend’s entire family. Within Lear’s lifetime he never specified the genders of the Owl or the Pussycat.

Here’s my first three paintings in my new series

“The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.” – Clancy – 11 x 14 – ink and acrylic on board“They took some honey and plenty of money wrapped in a 5 pound note” – Clancy – 11 x 14 – ink and acrylic on board“The Owl looked to the stars above and sang to a small guitar.” – Clancy – 11 x 14 – ink and acrylic on board

This week one of my gallery owners, Amy from Caplan Art Designs, visited my studio to see my progress on my new series (as well as my work on another commission). She encouraged me to keep going! Here’s a few photos from our visit… and, yes, I had art spread out all over the studio – every flat surface including the floor!

Here’s the video Amy did…

Here Amy’s looking at my commission in progress.

With the green-light given, so to speak, I’ll try to update this blog a bit more as time goes towards my exhibits. The Caplan Art Designs gallery carries my artwork all year long – each year I do a new series which takes quite some time to make.

In the meantime there are some cats and owls popping up in my sketchbook – which I share via my email newsletter – and, if you already follow my Substack, now you know why I’ve been doing all the owls and cats.

Thanks for reading!

Call-and-Response: “Strawberry Balloon” – poem by Elizabeth Gauffreau (art by Clancy)

One of my favorite types of blog posts is the call-and-response, when a piece of creative expression I see online prompts me to create something of my own in response to it. In this instance, artist Sue Clancy posted the latest addition to her whimsical menagerie, the porcupine Spike Prickly, borne aloft by a strawberry […]

Call-and-Response: “Strawberry Balloon”

Thank you so much Elizabeth Gauffreau for adding your delightful words to my artwork!!!

PSA about art and humanity

I write today in support of my fellow local artists and all artists everywhere. You are more important and more necessary now than ever. And it doesn’t matter that you’re not famous – what matters is that you are creating something. Art relates to our humanity like water relates to the thirsty body.

I write today because yesterday I had someone in my social media gloating about the election saying, and I’m paraphrasing and writing less angrily than they did, but the gist of what was said was “since the liberals were now officially owned and unpopular that means all the liberal artists – especially gay ones – should stop trying to indoctrinate everyone with their crap”.

Well, I blocked and deleted their comments and went on with my life. But then I thought that if I’m getting such messages it’s likely that other artists are getting similar.

So I write today to say “keep making your art”. Artists as people may have personal qualities, politics and opinions of all sorts *but the Arts themselves are about our humanity*. That’s a much larger concept than any political moment.

The Arts demonstrate, via paintings, fabric patterns, stories, music, etc. the billions of ways there are to be humane humans. The effort to try to make, with your own hands and heart, anything at all connects you to your own humanity – even if you never show anyone that thing you made.

Even if you don’t try to make anything yourself- you benefit from the Arts: perhaps you watch movies, listen to music, buy clothes or cups with patterns on them. Hardly any one of us can go 10 minutes in a day without encountering the Arts even accidentally. For example the restaurant where you have lunch will have, besides the culinary arts, paintings or murals, sculptures, background music, fabric patterns… the whole restaurant environment will be a carefully created one.

If you’re an artist or creative – please keep going, keep creating! If you don’t consider yourself artistic, please, comment kindly, or don’t comment at all, whenever you see creativity from an artist. And if you can afford it please buy from local artists and local art galleries and local bookstores and local independent theaters and local restaurants…. we need you and you need us because we’re all part of humanity. (See also the quote below by Toni Morrison)

Yesterday I bought a big package of paper plates that I’ll use as painting palettes. There are more than 200 plates in this package. I plan to keep going.

How my exhibit opening went

My exhibit opening at the Caplan Art Designs Gallery went very well!! Full details, photos and videos with details  and descriptions are over on my email newsletter https://sueclancy.substack.com/p/how-my-exhibit-opening-went

I’m as exhausted as you might imagine.

But I still want to have something on the “permanent record” of this blog so please forgive a dump of photos, taken by our Fairy Goddaughter, my wife and the Gallery, below

It especially delighted me that there was so much hands-on play happening with all of my artworks!

A look at the exhibit without people in the photos.

My exhibit related books are pictured with the access link below:

https://www.blurb.com/b/11994221-figures-of-speech-2-0https://www.blurb.com/b/12043332-doodlebugs

And here’s a selfie of me the day after the opening keeping my still in physical therapy ankle on ice!

Thank you for being so supportive and encouraging as I’ve worked toward this exhibit!!! I appreciate you!!!

Around the block

My one-person fine art exhibit at the Caplan Art Designs Gallery is opening Oct 3 from 6 to 8pm and the exhibit will run throughout October. I’ll admit that of all my new artworks the one mentioned in this post is the one I’m most looking forward to seeing people playing with during the reception. I look forward  to seeing people playing with my Eggheads too… but this post is about my picture puzzle interactive sculpture titled “Around The Block”.

All of the sculptures in my exhibit are examples of kinetic art – they rely upon the physical movements of the viewer in order to perceive my artwork.

For example: Around The Block is the overall title for a picture puzzle set of blocks I’ve created that has 6 different puzzle images that the viewer can physically put together.

Each puzzle image has 16 blocks – 4 across and 4 down – that form the puzzle image. While each puzzle image isn’t complicated- it’s not easy either. The viewer has to look closely at colors and shapes as well as the content of each block in order to complete the puzzle.

The idiom “around the block” refers to having had experience. Each of the puzzle images refer to specific experiences like being the “new kid on the block” or having had a “blockbuster” event or starting “off the blocks” or feeling “chock-a-block” or like a “blockhead” or being a “chip off the block”. I chose to create a picture puzzle because our life experiences are puzzles that we put together in our minds.

The overall frame is wood, 12.5 inches square, and holds the sixteen 2.5 inch solid wood blocks that I painted with acrylic paint. The blocks can be taken out and arranged so that it displays the chosen picture. The frame allows you to place it upright on a shelf, lay it on a table or hang it on a wall.

I asked a local art substrate company to make the wood puzzle according to my concept.  Matt McCalmont did an amazing job!

Here’s a look at “Around the Block” from an angle so you can see the depths and quality of it.

There are holes in the backboard so you can get the puzzle blocks out of the frame.

So you can sense the scale of the blocks

Here below are all of the 6 images.

Here’s a short video look.

Heres a full video looking at all of the sides.

Thanks for being here with me as I’ve worked toward this exhibit!