Eileen Claveloux is an artist living in Sunderland, Massachusetts. Born in Delaware and raised in New Jersey, she received a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts, an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a MEd from Westfield State University. Her work has exhibited internationally and more recently at The Springfield Art Museum (October, 2020 – January 2021). She was an artist in residence in Yerevan, Armenia for the 90th anniversary exhibition commemorating the genocide. In 2015 she presented her work related to the genocide to the Hrant Dink Foundations in Istanbul, Turkey. She taught at several area colleges, including UMass Amherst, as well as serving as Media Arts teacher at Easthampton High School, Easthampton, MA. For several years.
Her more recent work, a series called Life Stories, consist of images seamlessly collaged into somewhat distorted and shifted representations of realities, Each piece consists of combinations of many separate photos. After printing, a ‘story’ is written over the surface, becoming a texture. The writing is often stream of consciousness, covering family history, memory, current life events and more. These pieces tie into an intense interest in history and serve as a kind of diary of places and moments of importance. Past work including the ‘Diasporan Portraits’ series, referred to the history of the Armenian Genocide in creating portraits of descendants of genocide survivors, including many family members. The pieces are photo transfers on clear acrylic, creating a shadowy image referring to the very shadowy, almost forgotten history of a genocide that occurred in plain sight.