sue clancy – artist

For both June and July 2026 I’ll have a one-person fine art exhibit at Burnt Bridge Cellars in Vancouver, Washington. The opening party is June 5th. Details about the opening, the music, the food and how to make dinner reservations – here. Dropping by just to see my art, listen to music and have a glass of wine is an option too.

My exhibit is titled Mundane Magic I’ve created a new art series full of colorful whimsy because when things are hard in life the mundane world becomes both grounding and magical.

Here’s my exhibit statement:

Earlier this year when I was talking with Mark, the winery owner, about my then-proposed exhibit theme somehow we got to talking about the mundane aspects of my art career. In one of the stories about my career I mentioned my painting “Buffalo Gal Going Out Tonight“. Mark asked what had happened to the painting, if it could be included in my exhibit and, if so, could I write the story about it…. so I did.

About the painting “Buffalo Gal Going Out Tonight” by Sue Clancy

In 2011 my wife, Judy, and I met Kim and Mark Mahan and Burnt Bridge Cellars in a roundabout way because of a banned painting I’d created titled “Buffalo Gal Going Out Tonight.”

Back in 2008 when we still lived in Oklahoma I was to have a one person art exhibit at the Oklahoma State Capitol in November of that year. The day I delivered my 28 artworks to the Capitol for the exhibition in the East Gallery on the first floor of the Capitol building I was assisted by Judy, two of our dear friends and two of the interns working for the Oklahoma State Arts Capitol. After we’d unloaded all of the art through security and set it on the floor along the walls the interns brought their boss out to see everything. Their boss frowned deeply and after an eternity went to fetch their own boss. Then that boss went and got their boss and so it went up the food chain to the head of the Oklahoma State Arts Council. The end result was that more than a few of my paintings were banned from the Capital exhibit for alleged “inappropriate content”. My painting “Buffalo Gal…” being one of them.

With the help of my wife and our two friends, I was able to remain semi-calm and, while we were still at the Capitol, I called my Tulsa Oklahoma gallery, Joseph Gierek Fine Art, to tell about the  paintings that had been banned. The Gallery owner, Joe, said “Stay right there, I’ll come and pick them up!”

Tulsa is about a 200 mile drive away from the Oklahoma Capitol but Joe was there with his van in a trice. We loaded the banned art in the the gallery van and off Joe went back to Tulsa. Then the Joseph Gierek Fine Art gallery did a special exhibit behind yellow caution tape and called my one person exhibit there “View At Your Own Risk” with a statement telling a bit about my work being banned. Oh my, was the Gierek Gallery brave! So that very weird experience of being banned turned out very well for me and for Joe!

Photos from Joe showing part of the exhibit at the Joseph Gierek Fine Art gallery in 2008.

But the Capitol exhibit also launched me as a “controversial” artist and from then forward (more so than previously) I got hate mail and trolling from far-right, often Southern Baptist religious people, who regularly aired their objections to my “highly inappropriate” artworks. Their reasons for objections were often based on religious grounds which they shared with me, including bible chapters and verses, via postal mail, email and in-person. Oklahoma was also anti-gay, both socially and legislatively, and that aspect of the general atmosphere – as well as other aspects – added to the feeling of being very unsafe. I didn’t mind if people disliked or had strong negative opinions of my work – it was the personal threats within an anti-gay environment that heightened the sense of danger.

Other people in Oklahoma were very supportive of me and my artworks. They were highly encouraging and told me so regularly via postal mail, email and in person. They were large bright spots of hope and comfort for me during those hard times and I’ll always be grateful to them. They were friends then and remain friends now.

Even so by the time, 2011, when Judy and I had newly relocated to Washington I felt like I had severe emotional whiplash.

So, within weeks of moving to Vancouver we were walking around downtown exploring our new hometown during a break from unpacking. We saw the Burnt Bridge Cellars winery and an open door. We went in and were greeted with smiles from Kim and Mark. They weren’t technically open yet but they generously shared wine and we talked. Rather Kim, Mark and Judy talked. I sat relatively quietly. At one point Judy, by way of explaining how we came to be here, was telling about my exhibit at the Capitol. Judy told about the banning of “Buffalo Gal…” and the reasons, ostensibly, because she’s only wearing a slip, or possibly because the Buffalo has brown skin. Kim turned to me and said “You’ll have an exhibit here next year.” I replied “Don’t you want to see my stuff first?” “No, I trust you!” said Kim.

Our 2011 conversation re-lit a fire under me and I unpacked my studio and got back to making my artwork. In 2012, I began happily showing my art at Burnt Bridge and have exhibited in the winery every year since!

As a result of my re-lit fire in 2011, after another encouraging conversation with Donna Young, a local artist friend, I had an interview with the Caplan Art Designs Gallery in Portland OR. Having just moved I brought along to Caplan’s the finished artworks I had on hand (just unpacked) which was some of my then recently banned-in-Oklahoma artworks. The Caplan Gallery immediately signed me up as a gallery artist and sold 4 of my paintings before the ink on my gallery contract was dry! *

In Oklahoma my work had so often been considered “subversive”, “inappropriate” or even “offensive” (there were a number of bans of, and objections, regarding my artwork besides those at the Capitol) but here in the Pacific Northwest my work – sometimes the very same artwork! – has been considered “charming” “delightful” and “whimsical”. What a pleasantly inspiring and welcome shift of perspective!

Thank you for giving my Buffalo Gal places to go out! Especially here at Burnt Bridge Cellars!!!
I love and appreciate you all!!
– Sue Clancy

*The Caplan Art Designs gallery handles art sales during my Burnt Bridge Cellars exhibits. See something you like or have questions? Please contact Amy Caplan  1 (503) 319-6437 www.caplanartdesigns.com

You can see images of the artworks in my Mundane Magic exhibit here.

I’ve been writing about my mundane reality, as well as about specific paintings and why I made them, as I’ve prepared for my exhibit over on my Substack – links below:

https://sueclancy.substack.com/p/the-oxygen-of-life

https://sueclancy.substack.com/p/still-here

As I write more about the specific paintings I’ll update here.

Thanks for being here!!