I caught up with artist and environmental activist Claire Milner who shares about her career ranging from illustrator to crystal mosaicist.

Share a bit about your background.

I studied a Foundation course in Art and Design and went on to graduate in Graphic Design and Typography. I worked as an illustrator in London, and was commissioned by many large corporations and publishing companies to illustrate politicians, Central European Bankers and company CEOs. I undertook additional studies with the eminent international mosaic artist Elaine M Goodwin, which represented an organic evolution of my early collage illustrations and welcomed a new departure for my work, leading to the later crystal mosaic component of my practice.

I am based in the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside overlooking a picturesque valley, with an abundance of inspiration from the landscape and the many wild creatures that visit regularly.

What ideas are you exploring in your work?

I work in collections exploring my role as a witness to my own time in history, evoking personal values, beliefs, hopes and concerns in a fusion of densely layered compositions which signify both chaos and order, with deeper levels of meanings to be made on subsequent viewings. Environmental references such as climate change and mass extinction have been the central focus of my image making for more than two decades and my collections are continuously evolving around the theme of nature, our place within it and encroachment upon it. The impact of humanity is always implicit within my artworks, even when the human figure is absent or plays a minor role in the composition.

My portrayal of animals’ interchanges between the metaphoric and the literal and follows an extensive history of animal images in art dating back to cave paintings. Inspired by my love of Africa and recalling time spent living there, my paintings accentuate the uneasy juxtaposition of abundance and loss. They scrutinize the connection and disconnect between humankind and the natural world, where commercial values are contrasted with environmental ideals as determinants of worth.

The majority of my themes are universal - climate change, our impact on the environment, habitat loss and the current rapid rate of extinction. These are all issues which have devastating implications as the biggest challenges we face. Without the resolution of these overarching issues, we will not have the luxury to concern ourselves with others. Art does not exist in a vacuum and I believe an artist must hold a mirror up to the issues of their time. Humans do not exist in a vacuum either. We must treasure the natural world, because everything indigenous on the planet is here for the welfare of earth as a whole and we mess with that at our peril. The international language of art can cut across many boundaries, reaching wider audiences with critical messages about significant issues.

Share a bit about your artistic process.

I use reference material from my travels and two essential specifications which provide a framework for each collection of works:

***Last Chance to See by Claire Milner***

A topical and personal narrative related to climate change, extinction and the environment.
A connection to art history and classical literature.

I decide on the overall prerequisites for a full collection in advance, then the parameters of each painting within the collection follows the same rules in terms of medium, colour, content, themes, links to art history, literature, science or perhaps mythology. Mediums may include paint, paint skins, collage, typography, the ancient art of mosaic or more contemporary crystal mosaic, depending on the collection. Research is an essential part of my practice and where my process begins. I engage in hours of study, compiling statistics and viewing painful imagery of the consequences of poaching, habitat loss and climate change. In order to translate devastation into a thing of beauty, yet still retain the core of the critical message, I give a great deal of consideration to how I integrate this material into the final composition. Paint skins with printed text and photographic imagery showing graphic scenes of poaching are camouflaged into some paintings which are difficult to pick out at first sight, but once noticed are hard to forget, giving the work a multi-layered tactile aesthetic. This presents a surface optimism with a depth that concurrently speaks to much darker issues.

In terms of literature and art historical references, I research work that has appropriate links to the themes I am depicting. It usually takes about two weeks to collate my research which, is then interpreted in preparatory sketches before being translated into the final artwork. Here realistic and abstract elements coexist to form a balance of topical and historical narratives revealing my love of art and the environment.

Once I have the boundaries of the broad concept for a collection, I will work on one painting at a time. So much research is involved, that I need to focus on the ideas and analysis behind each piece, along with its connecting themes, to avoid distraction or dilution of the overall idea.

Can you talk a bit about the evolution of your practice and your work?

After devoting my career to fine art, there was a natural progression from early commissioned illustrations in paper collage, to mosaic, crystal mosaic, mixed media and painted works. For example, building an artwork from paper collage involves cutting and constructing the individual shapes in a similar process as a mosaic. The Swarovski crystal works take their influence from the pointillist movement using the same techniques and principles as mosaic in the way the andamento flows. I incorporate mosaic and crystal methodologies as a signifier of my familial ties to Italy. The exposure generated by being commissioned to create the large Swarovski crystal mosaic portrait of Marilyn Monroe for Rihanna, led to many enquiries about crystal mosaics. I subsequently developed and integrated this technique into a collection of mixed media images featuring keystone species, combining many of the above methodologies with text, hidden messages and painting. Many of the works from this collection entitled True Value have been auctioned in aid of the conservation organisations I support.

Four of my collections develop the concept that we are sleepwalking through the crisis of the planet’s the sixth mass extinction, and doing little or nothing to mitigate it. The content of each collection emphasises the uneasy juxtaposition of abundance and loss.

Anima Mundi my most recent and still on-going collection spotlights the intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet. This equitability of importance between all living organisms is underscored by challenging the usual hierarchy of foreground and background and giving equal significance to figures, flora and fauna. The works in this collection are both allegorical and literal, simultaneously presenting a utopian and dystopian viewpoint. Ghostly self-portraits appear as protector of the animals and environment, but certain repeating themes are signifiers that in an otherwise halcyon landscape, all is not quite as it seems. The butterfly represents chaos theory and the idea that initial small changes may ultimately have profound effects, such as the extensive impact of climate change. Panels show camera phones detailing the impact of threats facing the natural world indicating indifference and detachment when viewed through a lens. These references to topical culture place the work directly in the present tense, yet the jungle paintings are simultaneously Rousseau inspired, reaching backwards into art history.

Anthropocene Xtinction is a collection of paintings which highlight the unnatural pressures inflicted on the natural world by humanity. The Anthropocene epoch relates to an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Bringing together many elements of the previous two collections, monochromatic panels highlight potential irreversible loss, and a crystal mosaic X on the faces of principal animals references the title of the collection and highlights a sense of preciousness and jeopardy.

***The Hidden and the Revealed by Claire Milner***

Holocene Twilight is a collection of monochromatic paintings which develop the theme of, and contrast with the previous crystal mosaic collection entitled True Value. Grisaille oil paintings represent fading memories and loss. Endangered species within urban settings become metaphors for general displacement. The works highlight the inconvenient truth that through apathy, financial and political vested interests, world leaders seem unwilling to deal with the most difficult issues that face us. The monochromatic images recall black and white tv, old photographs and memories of things long gone. A selection of the works reference Guernica, thus representing a clarion call for war against poaching, climate change and habitat degradation. The Unknown commissioned by British actress and activist Virginia McKenna and sold to British actress and activist Joanna Lumley, is an allegorical painting which flips socio-political power disparities. It focuses on the little five, as opposed to the usual 'Big Five' who are now concealed in the Rousseau inspired background.

True Value is a collection of large-scale paintings which feature crystal mosaics depicting keystone species. Isolated in the picture plane, the creatures are elevated to the importance of human portraits, displaying an irreplaceability and an entwined destiny. The precious crystal mosaic faces of keystone species are undercut by semi-abstract painted backgrounds and graffiti drawing attention to multiple threats in the ‘dead’ language of Latin that relatively few now understand. Creatures created from thousands of individual elements appear as abstract images on close scrutiny, and on viewing from a distance they represent the last of their species as the big picture emerges into focus. These distinctions of detailed decoration and minimalism are utilized as a metaphor for abundance and extinction. The handprints reference the birth of art in the earliest cave and rock paintings and the hand of humankind as a force for good or ill.

Can you share a favourite quote?

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” Robert Swan OBE

Which artists do you enjoy at the moment?

Contemporary artists only, as it’s hard to narrow down! Dustin Yellin, Teresita Fernandez and Zaria Forman.

What is the most memorable thing someone has said about your work?

Rihanna in Vogue Paris in which she featured my crystal mosaic portrait of Marilyn in a profile of her favourite things said “This portrait by the artist Claire Milner is at home in New York.

She makes portraits of celebrities a bit like Warhol, but in her case, the Swarovski crystals replace the serigraphic technique and acrylic on canvas. I find fascinating the shadows, the nuances, and the emotions that she manages to express thanks to subtle games of coloured crystals. I am in love with this work. And I am in love with Marilyn. What is more moving than these candid eyes?”

And a beautiful piece by Susan Rockefeller in Musings Magazine: “Art has long held the potential for social activism—Pablo Picasso, Judy Chicago, Banksy, to name a few. British artist Claire Milner belongs on the list. Her large-scale paintings explore identity, gender, politics and fashion. But dearest to our heart are her depictions of animals and the environment. From poaching and climate change to habitat loss and captivity, Milner powerfully yet tenderly exposes the toll all of these take on wildlife and endangered species.. (Her) artwork is staggeringly beautiful. A majestic lion’s head made entirely from Swarovski crystals. A painting of a rhinoceros in Venice. Another of a beguiling woman riding an elephant. But upon closer inspection, it’s clear all is not well in these worlds—the elephant is in chains. The rhino has been commodified. Climate change, poaching, and loss of habitat are forcing already endangered animals into extinction. And that’s just what Milner wants us to think and talk about—and then take action.”

What would be a dream project for you?

It would be a dream to collaborate with the Swarovski Foundation in creating a series of artworks in support of the environmental organizations and projects they partner with. The desire to take care of the natural world remains central to Swarovski’s ethos. My passion for the environment and previous experience working with their beautiful crystals to create artworks supporting conservation organisations would represent a wonderful fit for my work. Since 2013, the Swarovski Foundation has supported 47 charitable organizations across 34 countries. Daniel Swarovski understood that if a business is to thrive, so must the environment and people on which it depends. Their partner organisations are engaged in the conservation, protection and improvement of the natural world and include the Jane Goodall Institute, The Blue Marine Foundation and The Nature Conservancy.

Claire Milner

Kavel Rafferty

Stewart Taylor