The notecards with the pen and ink streetscape caught my eye- the illustrations depicted a familiar row of buildings from the neighborhood. The drawings were handsome, the lines confident and expressive. As it turned out, the set of cards I purchased nearly twenty years ago was my first encounter with the artist Claire Cressler. Many years later a friend introduced me to a gentleman who lived nearby, an artist by trade and avocation, a prolific painter named Claire.
The community had an opportunity to view work by Claire in Akron: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a group exhibit in 2005 at Summit Artspace , which featured a selection of his urban landscapes. Paintings from that show were later installed in the Akron-Summit County Public Library as a part of their permanent collection.
On January 8, 2008, Claire died. He lived nearly a century and documented much of it in his drawings and paintings. Art was his passion, second only to his love for his late wife, Gloria.
I came across a few remaining notecards the other day. Some of the pictured buildings have changed; some are gone. These cards will remain unused- small pieces of local history, treasured now as mementos of an artist I’m happy to have known.
Claire’s artwork on exhibit announcement
Claire (left) with Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic
(Summit Artspace photo)
