Chase Spearance

Chase Spearance knew they were an artist as soon as they could make art. They grew up in the woods of upstate New York, where they fostered their love of nature and their queer identity through live-action role-playing at summer camp. Chase attended Bennington College, where they took many ceramics classes for a literature major and studied costume design, drawing, and printmaking. A year after the COVID-19 pandemic sent Chase home to complete their senior spring on Zoom, they moved to Boston, where they now work as an after-school teacher. They treasure the opportunity to be creative with their fourth and fifth grade students, who keep them curious and humble every day. Chase misses being surrounded by trees but enjoys going to DIY music shows and finding weird stuff on the street.

Artist Statement

Fundamentally, for me, making art must be about finding joy. When I work in collage, I revel in surrendering myself to the process and letting my materials be the guide. When sourcing images, I am drawn to vintage periodicals and outdated scientific texts for the feelings they evoke, those of being displaced in time and glimpsing another life as if through a window. While I find myself returning to themes of the body, violence, and the macabre, they are not consistent through lines in my work, as I try as often as I can to begin pieces without a vision of what they will look like when I’m done. Feeling trapped by capitalism in my daily life, I endeavor to disturb its proponents and speak to its detractors. I hope some of my work will say, “Do You See Me? Because I See You.”

Instagram: @summer_self_art

images of work

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