Seattle artist Claire Cowie Gets Bit by the Stage Bug

Cowie takes a big gulp and a big risk on a new art form...

Claire Cowie's art is exhibited from Seattle to L.A., raved by Art in America newly trashed by critic Matt Kangas. But now Cowie's an opera designer too. In six weeks flat, she made suit-of-armor costumes and a forty-foot landscape backdrop for Pacific Musicworks' and Seattle Chamber Players' production of Monteverdi's Combattimento (March 4-6, 8pm at On the Boards, along with Heiner Goebbels' Songs of Wars I Have Seen, previewed by Zach Carstensen here.

Cowie says the heroes are Tancredi and Clorinda, "who fight to the death without knowing who their opponent is because they are simply in enemy armor (turns out they were formerly lovers and Tancredi is very sad to realize that he killed the woman he loves). Fabulous." Also fab: "I've been amazed at the immediacy of how the performers work, and it's actually been inspiring to try to capture some of that enthusiasm, and not over-think things all by myself in the studio for months."

Cowie is a natural for drama. Her artwork is like mysterious storytelling. Sophisticated yet childlike, she reminds me of a saner Henry Darger, or a nicer, less illustrative Maurice Sendak.