Statement   Raised in California's San Joaquin Valley, I began my art training at an early age with classes at the Fresno Arts Center (now the Fresno Art Museum).  After high school graduation I attended the Okanogan School of Arts in Canada. Returning to California two months later, I enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to study art history and studio arts. Supporting my education through work in a physics research lab brought about my fascination with images of science. The linear quality of bubble chamber interactions, the symmetry of the DNA model, the grandeur of Hubble telescope photographs and the beauty of archetypal natural forms continues to inspire my paintings and poetry. Art critic Charles Shere once wrote, "Clare Olivares' mixed media paintings work the interesting Bay Area Tantric mood of such painters as Janis Provisor and Phyllis Ideal - not always as successfully, but with considerable strength, resourcefulness and grace." Now as then, I paint narrative landscapes that are both treatments of a familiar reality as well as explorations of unknown terrain. My highly personal landscapes are contemplative and symbolic. The landscape, for me, is a marker of location, identity and memory.   My painting approach is intuitive using saturated color and glazing techniques. My art history background is always present in the creative process and I'm especially influenced by the work of American visionary painters such as Agnes Pelton and Charles Burchfield.    I have exhibited widely including at the University of San Francisco (CA), Loma Linda University (CA), Richmond Art Center (CA), Lisa Coscino Gallery (CA), Museum Without Walls (NY), Alexandria Museum of Art (LA), Laguna Gloria Art Museum (TX), Louisiana State University (LA), Blutenweiss Gallery (Germany) and Sakai Cultural Hall (Japan). I live and work in Oakland, California.