Clara Berta – Biography
Clara Berta is a passionate, award winning mixed media, abstract artist of Hungarian heritage. She teaches advanced painting techniques as well as collage classes using photos and other materials – in a beautiful setting in Los Angeles, California. Celebrated for “capturing the vulnerability in all of us,” the complex, emotional connection admirers declare they encounter in Berta’s creations is precisely what the mixed media artist says she is trying to achieve with her art. Berta believes art can offer therapeutic relief from the challenges and stress people face in their daily lives – a belief she came to adopt through personal experience:
More than a dozen exhibitions around the country have featured Berta’s work. Disney even selected her art in its film You Again. When Berta isn’t exhibiting, she is introducing art as therapy to others. The artist hosts weekly lessons at her home studio in L. A., encouraging her students to use artistic expression as a means for overcoming personal challenges.
“I like to watch my students unleash parts of them they never knew existed… when they tap into their creative side, it opens up doors in their relationships,” Berta divulged when named Amy Applebaum’s Entrepreneur of the Month. “They connect with their bodies in ways they hadn’t thought of, and it opens up the mind, allowing for new thoughts, ideas and beliefs.”
Berta also hosts Ladies Night In once a month. The gatherings, centered on wine, cheese and art, are yet another way Berta applies her own creativity toward helping others find a positive outlet for the inner emotions. The Hungarian instructor also reaches out to local organizations and has donated several works to Dreams on Canvas, Midnight Mission – a homeless advocacy organization in LA, the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society and Fostering Imagination.
Ultimately, Berta is hoping to share one basic message through both her art and her instruction:
“Life is what we make it. Beauty can be found in most everything. Example: my car broke down and I found a torn tire next to a freeway. Now, it’s a piece of art. You can create from nothing and then make something out of it. That’s what makes it beautiful.”
Clara Berta grew up in a culturally rich and stimulating environment, born in a Hungarian enclave in Romania, then moving to Chicago at the age of eleven. She relocated to Los Angeles when she began her education where she received her BA in Psychology from Antioch University.
Berta has concentrated on abstract expressionism through painting and unique monotypes. Her paintings and prints explore theme such as the ebb and flow of memory, the significance of personal heritage, renewal, the passing of physical time, desire, passion, and love.
