Claire Thoele Art + Design
Commissions are welcome. Email: claire.thoele@gmail.com Instagram: @clairethoele
Once upon an Inktober 2019, I started working on a series of sketchbook drawings, all in ink, all in black and white, and all with a black background. These were my only parameters, and yet through the prompts and the process, a theme started appearing. Magic users started to show up, but the magic always came with a terrible price. I translated these sketches into several iterations, ending with this series of 9 matted ink and watercolor paintings, in black, blue and embellished with gold.
The Witches is a series devoted to women reclaiming their power through whatever means are available. The Bone Witch seizes the power of her physical form, channeling magic through skulls and mushrooms. The seven tenets of The Satanic Temple comprise the text behind her with emphasis placed on III - One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
Enjoy the warmth of a roaring fire and a hot beverage after a long day in the snowy wilderness, a tale is being told. The shadows are evoking the tale of the binding of Fenrir, from Norse myth. All the gods are afraid of Fenrir because he's a huge wolf and Loki's son, so they decide that he has to be chained. Fenrir breaks out of every chain that they try, until they get a thin and delicate chain made by the dwarves out of things that don't exist. It looks so puny that he suspects a trick, so will only consent to be bound if someone puts their hand in his mouth. Tyr (who has been his trusted friend) agrees and when Fenrir realizes that he has been fooled, bites his hand off. Fenrir is transported to a lonely place where he waits until Ragnarok, when he will break free to kill Odin and eat the sun. Having adopted a dog, I always feel bad for Fenrir, maybe if he had been trusted and cared for appropriately he wouldn't have become the monster that everyone thought he was from the beginning.
Poster for Twin Wizard at Gabes’s in Iowa City. I love the gradient of the brain texture in the background and the madness in the eyes.
I used an image from one of my sketchbooks and really went wild with the lettering. I was inspired by psychedelic posters from the 60s as well as the comic “Space Riders.”