Claire Hagan Bauza – A Celebrated Life
… I behold death, since it teaches me how to live. If you accept death, it is altogether like a frosty night and an anxious misgiving, but a frosty night in a vineyard full of sweet grapes. You will soon take pleasure in your wealth. Death ripens. One needs death to be able to harvest the fruit. Without death, life would be meaningless, since the long-lasting rises again and denies its own meaning. To be, and to enjoy your being, you need death, and limitation enables you to fulfill your being.……. Carl Jung
On May 14, 2025, Claire Bauza, one of JACO’s founders and always a guiding star, passed from this world. Claire also was the driving force behind the establishment of JACO’s art gallery in 1990, a place where primarily local artists could reveal their journeys of individuation. As Claire said, “Carl Jung was very interested in art and was a wonderful artist himself for a short period of time…. [W]e knew that Jung himself felt that the creative outlets of music and art and other ways of expressing the psyche through dreams and all kinds of different ways are very important.”
Claire knew she was an artist from childhood. In her formative years, she graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a bachelor of fine arts. She also obtained 2 art-related master’s degrees at The Ohio State University. She was an art teacher for many years, teaching at all grade levels. Her final years of teaching were at Fort Hayes in Columbus, a high school dedicated to the arts.
In 1996, Claire, together with artist Anne Cushman, identified a need for an independent printmaking studio in Columbus, Ohio. They opened the Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative—an appropriate name as they literally built the site from the ashes. Phoenix Rising continues to thrive as a creative space for local printmakers.
Claire also served as the curator for the Fort Hayes art gallery as well as the curator for JACO’s art gallery when JACO was based at the JungHaus. In addition, she co-authored a book on the use of clay as a tool for learning.
Our hearts also go out to Claire’s husband, Michael, a beloved JACO member, and to her children – daughter Jenny and son Kerry. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
Claire will be deeply missed. Rest well.
Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love… Life always says Yes and No simultaneously. Death (I implore you to believe) is the true Yea-sayer. It stands before eternity and says only: Yes….. Rainer Maria Rilke
Please enjoy this virtual exhibit in recognition of Claire’s considerable artistic gifts. The selections in this exhibit are works Claire produced from 1957 to 2010.
Let your cursor hover over an image to see its title and click on the “+” sign to expand the photo.
The Jung Association Gallery features artists whose work reveals their journeys of individuation.
Thank you for your interest in our gallery. To receive information about upcoming exhibits and workshops/artist talks, please send your name and email to jungaco@jungcentralohio.org
If you are interested in exhibiting at the Jung Association Gallery, please contact us at 614-291-8050, to leave your name/contact info.