PDX Profile: Christine Claringbold, of Eye Pop Art

We're chatting with Christine Claringbold this week. She makes wonderful, colorful things from recycled materials -- most especially, old vinyl records. Her business is called Eye Pop Art. You can see more of her work at her website, and get to know her better at her new blog.

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How did you get started creating art from recycled materials?
Out of necessity! Back in 1994, my boyfriend Chuck (who has been my husband for the last eleven years) went out and bought himself a canvas and three tubes of acrylic paint in red, yellow, and blue. He made one painting and that was it.

So one day I just decided to start experimenting myself, and I began mixing the colors and creating a wild, psychedelic painting on the first thing I could find, which was an old hardshell suitcase that I had been traveling around with.

After that I just started painting everything - Chuck's guitar, the interior of our 1970 Galaxie 500, the pop machine at the local record shop (we were living in a town in Montana at the time), furniture, everything. When we moved back home to Portland with our one-month old baby girl, Tangereen, I continued to paint stuff just to brighten up our home - chairs, the baby's crib, the stereo cabinet, etc.

We have a good friend, Billy Brahm (now the drummer in Chuck's band Dartgun), who also loved to paint on everything. He did some really wild furniture that was a big inspiration to me. One time he traded me a painted telvevision set for a painting that I did on his acoustic guitar. Billy also painted records - and still does. I kind of stole the record idea from him, but as he says, "You didn't copy me, you just got really busy!"

What happened was, a friend of Chuck's gave him a box of crappy old records which we didn't know what to do with. We didn't even have a record player at the time. So Chuck said, "You should paint them, like Billy does!" And so it began. My style is really quite different from Billy's. He paints lots of dots and swirls and amoeba-like shapes. I paint mandalas. And it was with records that I really discovered my ability to make mandalas, which have become the core of my work.

Tell us about mandalas! What are they, and how have they come to be
an integral part of your work?

I painted my most intense and detailed mandalas on vinyl records in the years 1997 and 1998, without even knowing what they were. In the 1998 season, I started selling my work at Portland Saturday Market, and it was actually customers at the market who first told me that they were called mandalas. I had not heard the word before.

I still don't really know a whole lot about them, but I can tell you that mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning "circle" and that a mandala is basically a circular design with patterns that radiate out from the center of the circle. They are created and used in many cultures around the world, from the Tibetan buddhist monks to the Navajo Indians. Carl Jung wrote extensively about mandalas. They are considered to be powerful aids for meditation, healing, and transformation. They are also very easy and relaxing for people of all ages to create. I have done mandala projects with kids from 1st - 7th grade and also with adults, and they always come out so beautiful!

I love making mandalas because they are simple and complex at the same time, and because no two are ever alike.

What do you enjoy most about working with recycled materials?
They are so inexpensive! My cost of supplies is incredibly low because I get most of my records for free from people who are just trying to get rid of them.

How do you define the difference between "Art" and "Craft?"
I think that works of craft can become "products" more easily than works of art.

What are your favorite creative spots in Portland?
I love the creative energy at Duniway Elementary School, where the kids are such amazing artists. I have been involved in the parent-led art program at Duniway for the last eight years, and I am constantly excited and inspired by the creations of children.

I also love Crafty Wonderland, the Alberta district (their recent Art Hop was a lot of fun!), and Trillium Artisans.