Remembering Claire Hagan Bauza 1937-2025, our Co-Founder
Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative regrets to announce the passing of our co-founder, Claire Hagan Bauza, May 15, 2025. The Cooperative was originally her vision; it was a continuation of her passion for art, teaching and mentoring. As she was retiring from being an art teacher in the Columbus Public Schools, she gathered a small group of printmakers including Anne Cushman, a recent transplant from Philadelphia, and formers students to begin renovating a 100 year old building on Parsons Avenue. After two years of a lot of determination and much hard work, Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative opened its doors in September 1998. The Cooperative has grown and moved and nurtured artists ever since. With pride and delight Claire attended our 25th anniversary celebration in 2023.
A Celebration of Life memorial service will be held at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus at 3:00 PM on July 13, 2025.
Walhalla Ravine, Fall c1994 – Reduction Linocut
House, etching print
Mullett Lake Farm, 1989 – Reduction Linocut
River Bend, 1989, Reduction Linocut
The C.G. Jung Association of Central Ohio (JACO) has posted a virtual exhibition of a sampling of Claire’s work in remembrance to her. View this exhibition here.
Judith Claire Hagan Bauza (nee Hopple), 88, died at her home in Columbus, Ohio, on May 15, 2025.
Daughter, sister, mother, and spouse. Teacher, artist, and mentor. Claire (the name she preferred) cherished each of these roles as something sacred.
Born March 9, 1937, in Cleveland, Ohio, Claire graduated from North Olmsted High School in 1955, received a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1959, and obtained two art-education-related master’s degrees from The Ohio State University.
Claire’s love for creating, teaching, and sharing art was a lifelong passion from early childhood – when she would fill pages of newsprint with drawings and illustrations of her own imaginative stories – into her eighties, when she was still exhibiting her work in local galleries. Claire considered art an essential part of existence, and made hers joyfully with a variety of media, including watercolor, oils, and prints.
She spent many years as an art educator, teaching at all grade levels and inspiring students to carry art experiences with them into their futures. Her final years of teaching were at Columbus’s high school for the arts, Fort Hayes, where she also served as gallery curator. After retiring from teaching, Claire cofounded with Anne Cushman, the Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative, a creative space for local printmakers in September 1998.
Mentorship, community, and service inspired her as a founding member of the C.G. Jung Association of Central Ohio (JACO), where she served on the board of trustees, curated the JungHaus gallery, and motivated others in their paths of individuation. She was also a long-time member of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, holding positions as board member and board chair, and also serving on numerous committees and participating in art exhibitions.
On most warm days, Claire’s love for creation and growth followed her into her beloved gardens, where she spent thousands of happy hours digging, planting, and watching things bloom.
She is survived by her loving husband of twenty-two years, Michael Bauza, her son Kerry Hagan, daughter Jennifer Satterfield and her husband Jay, her four grandchildren Sara Hagan, Sophia Hagan, Evan Satterfield, and Nathan Satterfield, her great-grandson Lew, and her siblings Jim Hopple, Nancy Builder, Marcia Hopple, Deborah Hopple, and Jerry Hopple, and many nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to JACO at www.jungcentralohio.org.
In closing, Claire’s family would like to share a portion of a poem she and her husband created for one of their handmade Christmas cards. It’s from 2016, the year Claire suffered a stroke.
…a garden of healing
with so many butterflies,
lovely visitors seeking out the honey;
other winged ones, the many kinds of bees
and angels…
Now the blooming season has ended
but leaves us with the memories –
and the angels –
hidden warmth waiting.