Claes Kamp
I grew up in a family where art in all forms always played a central role.
As a kid I used to have “painting fridays” with my dad. He got a beer and I got something with a lot of sugar, we listened to rock n’ roll and painted all night. Never with any demands of certain results or progress, but for the fun of it. That’s where I found art.
A few years later, as a loud mouthed punk teen, with absolutely no grades to speak of I had the luck of having a few explosively passionate teachers who, with their own hands got me in to the fine arts program where I never found my medium but very much the way I wanted to make things. A huge turning point in my life. I would still skip math and anything else that didn’t interest me but spent the time in the arts department instead.
I later studied 3 years of industrial design focused on wood technology where I found out that I never want to be part of mass consumption but that I love to work with wood. That lead me down the line to woodcrafts and I got in to the “Träslöjd- och Smide” (Woodcrafts and Blacksmithing) program at Västerbergs Folkhögskola where I studied traditional woodcrafts and ended up with being the second person in Sweden examined with a Journeyman’s Letter in woodcrafts.
Two years later, in the late summer of 2020 I started up what I called Claws Creations and went full time with my dream of making wooden art and bespoke furniture. In 2022 I changed pseudonym to ClaesKamp
Nowadays the loud mouth and the crazy hair is gone, but the punk heart is still there and I try to put that heart into every single piece I make.
-Claes
Pricing
For as long as I have run my art making business I’ve felt uncomfortable with the inherent capitalist structure of it. I’ve tried to counteract it with discounts for people with low incomes and such but it still doesn’t feel right. The thing is that if I price my art at “market prices” I exclude like 2/3 of the people appreciating it from owning it. I’m not cool with that.
I don’t want to be one of those artists that spends a lifetime on a few masterpieces. I want to be an artist that makes a huge body of work that people actually have in their homes and feel encouraged or inspired by. And I make a lot of art. And hate the exclusivity thing of the art market. So I’d rather sell 4 pieces for the price of one than vice versa. More homes, same dough = 👍🏻
So from now all my art is firstly being seriously reduced in price. And secondly I won’t set fixed prices but instead give price suggestions and then by making honest deals with you we adjust the price to meet both our needs.
paintings will be suggested like this: width+height in mm=price in SEK. So a large painting that is 800x1200mm will cost 2000sek. That would be around 1/3 of my previous pricing. Sculptures will start at around the same bottom price as before but the top end will be lowered a ton.
I want my work to be an act of anti-capitalistic activism. That includes all aspects of it. I don’t want you to see my art as an investment. I want it to be something you feel an emotional connection to. And if you do, I want you to be able to have it. Not excluding anyone from that just because they aren’t willing or able to run the capitalist game.
Simply put. If you want to buy art just like normal, the only change is that my pricing is changing. If you are not comfortable with some sum, we will work it out. There is nothing I want more than to have my art in your space.
This is a risk though. If I don’t sell more art I won’t be able to make this work. So PLEASE BUY ART, 😅 and tell me your situation! And if you are absolutely loaded and really want to, of course feel free to chip in a bit extra. 😎 Anyways we will make it happen!
If we want change, we gotta start with ourselves. Love you all! ❤️