Stephen Clark

Seeking to surprise myself is a cherished challenge in my work, both in the decisions made and their final resting place. The process is the definitive core of this work; not seeking a predictable and known road. I enjoy sinking my teeth into diverse subject matter to spur my imagination and to conjure up my own primal language. The method involves sifting through my memory bank of the two dimensional spectrum of mark making and integrating crude thumbnail sketches along the way to arrive at a place that is unexpectedly cohesive. The result represents a playful yet strategic undertaking.

The work is both reverent and irreverent in regards to the visual vocabulary and it’s history. Generating tension through composition is a major component, pushing the objective against the subjective- the abstract against the expressive. I see them as erotic. Each painting having it’s own visual mousetrap effect of the particular regions pushing against each other, interacting- creating a rhythm, a tempo of chess moves towards discovering the complete static opus. I approach the paintings as distilling vessels, each being distinctive in it’s own poetic, musical voyage and final Homecoming.

That unique human moment when time present and past reign within, reflecting and seeing the wondrous order in the illusion of chaos.

 “We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time”

“Little Gidding” T. S. Eliot 

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