Interview between Saria Smith, Curatorial Assistant, and Sean Clark, Artist-in-Residence.
Sean Clark in hist studio. Photo: @wolfrancis
Saria: Did you always think you were an artist?
Sean C: Not necessarily. I was definitely drawing superheroes out of comic books when I was in elementary school. Probably not till I moved to New Orleans in 2012 did I start considering myself an artist. That's the first time I painted consistently. I started in college as an outlet. The environment when I moved to New Orleans was rich with opportunities to see, experience, and make art.
Saria: How did living in New Orleans influence your art?
Sean C: It's so rich in culture and different types of experiences that you can have. It's hard for me to explain, but it's just a magical place. There's no other place that I've been to like it. In terms of people, you can feel that creative energy in the air. It's everywhere.
Saria: Was there anything specific in your childhood that sparked your excitement for art?
Sean C: Definitely. My love of X-Men and comic books. That, and my dad’s college roommate was an artist, and so our house had paintings, sculptures, and other stuff he had done. So I was raised in an environment where I was surrounded by it.
Saria: You minored in public health and African American studies. How does that inform your art now?
Sean C: Before I start a painting, I look at it through a certain lens of how the information that's contained within the piece is being seen. I think about what I am trying to communicate about what's going on in the environment. I look to a lot of public health issues and a lot of health practitioners to inform me of my subject matter. A big thing is thinking about mental health and working in public health; you encounter that all the time.
Saria: How does your personal identity factor into your work?
Sean C: I think that being a black person from the south is something ingrained into my everything, from the clothes I wear to how I paint. It's something that I proudly carry with me everywhere. There's a lot to that question. In terms of my identity, I look back a lot. I look at my family history; I look at my peers, my cousins, there are so many different components. I'm not sure how to hone it into one cohesive thought.
NFS (Not For Sale). 12x12in, 2020
Saria: Do you use your art as a form of therapy
Sean C: Yeah, it's definitely therapeutic, just the act of painting even if what you create is not something that's necessarily aesthetically pleasing, just that act of sort of stepping outside of time and being in the zone for a while gives you a mental break.
Saria: What attracts you to abstract work?
Sean C: I really like mark making, to make a mark and fill in the space. I studied biology, and one of the first things you encounter is talking about the cell and all these microscopic things that happen. To me, those abstract works resembled those sorts of cellular processes that power us. I think that's what's emerging from the abstract work, something that is within us.
Saria: What was the inspiration for the mask paintings? Where did the name meeting notes come from?
Sean C: I was working in public health. I spent so much time just in meetings, and I would be there doodling, drawing these little faces. They really started to look like my dad’s college roommate’s work. His name is Sammie Nicely. He used to do these big ceramic masks, and the ones I was doodling started to look like that. So later, I had all these meeting agendas and scrap paper with all these little mask-like things, and I took those little sketches and turned them into larger paintings.
Saria: Who were some major influences for you?
Sean C: My Dad got stuff from artists in the 80s, so a bunch of Sammie’s work and then an artist named Schroeder Cherry who still makes great work, these were the paintings I grew up around. Then just all the comic books, like Jack Kirby doing the early X-Men stuff, and one of my favorites is Bill Sienkiewicz, it's painterly but still a comic.
Meeting Notes 92, acrylic/oil pen on watercolor, 18x24in, 2018
Saria: What does the community mean to you?
Sean C: Looking out for each other, being considerate of the people you share space with. When people are just blatantly disrespecting the environment and the people within it, it makes me mad. Community to me is just being considerate and helping those you share the space with. It's as simple as I can put it.
X-Men #1, Acrylic and Oil Pastel on paper, 3ft x 6ft, 2019
Saria: What do you think is really good about this residential community?
Sean C: I think everybody here has been respectful of the circumstances of everything that's going on, which I appreciate. Everyone has been kind and easy-going, and I enjoy being a part of the initial group that's still figuring it out. Hopefully, something from our experience will help future cohorts to come into this space with great ease.
Saria: What do you think Stove Works has done really well in your time here?
Sean C: They've done well in bringing us together. With things as simple as us having a fire pit to convene around, I appreciate that. If there were issues, they'd be on top of it. The staff and everybody work seamlessly, everything feels like it's flowing.
Saria: What are your plans after Stove Works?
Sean C: I'm going to see my friends and just chill out for a couple of weeks. Next month three pieces are going to be shown at the upcoming Trout Museum in Wisconsin and I have a big abstract piece going to Art Fields in Lake City, South Carolina.
About Sean
Sean Clark is a self-taught artist from Chattanooga that now lives in New Orleans. Sean is greatly inspired by Sammie Nicely, comic artists and writers such as Ralph Ellison, among many others. Sean graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a concentration in Public Health and African American studies, topics that continue to influence his art practice. He has one week left at Stove Works, and thankfully I got time to sit down and talk with him about his life, his art, and his influences.
If you want to see more of Sean’s work and be inspired, you can view his stuff at www.sgclarkart.com
About Me, the interviewer
My name is Saria Smith, and I am a BFA Student currently working as the Curatorial Assistant at Stove Works Gallery. I am an artist and find joy in expressing myself through various mediums, especially music, printmaking, and painting. I decided to start these artist interviews as a way for the public to connect more with the residents who flow through Stove Works perhaps unseen, especially during this pandemic.
Happy Friday from Stove Works :)