Artist Statement

Clark’s paintings “possess a wild and liberated sensibility, culminating in a pictorial representation of the beauty and destruction that prevail in the modern world…….

Appearing throughout are searing moments of discontent and even violence; meanwhile, positive experiences of beauty and pleasure are depicted with a heavy melancholic tone.” Leila Cartier, Curator of William King Museum, Abingdon, VA 

Clark says, “The primary and underlying theme of my painting since 1983 to date is about mourning and loss. Painting provides a way for me to express the varied aspects of an observed human condition. It also gives expression to the immediate, emotional/visceral responses of my personal life.  Painting creates an order within a defined space while opening to the unknown and unexpected. And hopefully, for both the viewer and for me, it becomes an experience of insight and understanding with a strange beauty and fragile completeness.”

“The paintings gathered and painted for To Transgress at the William King Museum enlarged the ongoing theme of mourning and loss. Included in this exhibition were paintings about the devastation of war, and about the beauty of the natural world.”

Recent paintings have been about the Invasion of Ukraine. And other paintings are about the simple joy of using the materials. It is always a spiritual exploration and a challenge.

“The dilemma of the artist is to absorb the shocks of reality.” 

 Robert Motherwell, 1965