Practitioner Profile: Caroline Cleave

Practitioner Profile: Caroline Cleave
Caroline, based in North Cornwall, has been involved with many of the partner organisations involved in this publication through a range of projects and programmes.

Your Name
Caroline Cleave

Your Practice
Visual and textile artist

How long have you been a creative practitioner?
Since 1998

What were you doing or working in before that?
My own work and part-time teaching

Describe your work for us!
Always large!!! I love using colour when creating sculptural forms or textiles. I'm often asked to work in schools alongside musicians and dancers to create visual props for processions and performances. I regularly work for Creative Partnerships, Adult Education, Cornwall Scrap Store and am currently working with The Works.

What has recently been the most revelatory or transformational moment for you?
My recent work on the Virtual Hurlers project totally opened my eyes to the tremendous possibilities of bringing art work to life through video using blue screen technology and superimposing with chroma-key. It completely changed what I believed was possible to achieve, and made me very excited about combining the two in future projects.

Who or what has had the most profound influence on your career?
Someone once told me that who you are and what you do should be the same. If you were lucky enough to get someone to pay you for doing it, then that was the secret to fulfilment. This had a profound effect on me because it made me focus on who I was and what I really wanted to do. Since then I have completed some amazing projects and have been fortunate enough to work with people who have a similar attitude and enthusiasm for what they do.

What is the best aspect of your creative work with school children?
The best aspect of my creative work in schools is to never underestimate what can be achieved at any age, as a consequence, I feel liberated, excited and challenged when I plan a project.

What is your ambition?
To continually learn, stimulated and challenged through my work.

If you had three wishes for the future what would they be?

Sensible wishes: 
To co-produce a large successful project in an extraordinary location
To have some influence in the way the curriculum in schools could be taught through the arts
To excel, working along side others, at combining art and video technology

Not-so-sensible wishes:
That school doors were wider and opened automatically
That I could find a Man Friday to do all the domestic chores
That I was commissioned to create a magnificent installation in a location of my choice!

What simple advice would you give creative people setting out on their careers?
You have one life - go for it!!!!!