Claire Marks

Claire Marks stumbled into the process of hand-marbling paper while pursuing decorative end-sheets for her handmade books. As an art student, she made full-size sheets of the paper by floating thinned oil paint on water and dipping the paper into a large tray. Since those early experiments, she has explored the traditional techniques of this obscure trade, using an Irish moss powder to thicken the water and make the floating paints easy to manipulate into an endless array of mesmerizing patterns. Peaceable Kingdom Books, which Marks started in 2017, is named after a series of paintings by the 19th-century American Quaker Edward Hicks. The paintings depict a passage from the Book of Isaiah which prophetically describe a time when all creatures harmoniously live together in a “peaceable kingdom.” Marks has exhibited her prints, books, and marblings at venues including the Morgan Conservatory of Papermaking (Cleveland), Heights Arts (Cleveland Heights), Lynda Tuttle’s Art Center (Canton), Summit Artspace (Akron), and the John F. Seiberling Gallery (Peninsula).