Meet Joseph Clarke

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joseph Clarke. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Joseph, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Purpose is the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. I’ve never felt that I myself have a purpose; however, my work most certainly does. The purpose of my art-making is to, first and foremost, fulfill my strong inner desire to create. This feeling I have lived with my entire life has been a leading factor in all my significant decisions, such as choosing jobs, education, and creative outlets. The second purpose of my art-making practice is more practical and revolves around my yearning to work for myself while simultaneously providing for my family. What started as a small passion has bloomed into a career that ticks all my boxes for fulfillment.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Art making has always been a major part of my life, but up until I graduated from Hartford Art School in 2018 with a fine arts degree, it was never the main thing. Immediately after university, I began working as a studio assistant to one of my professors, my favorite painting professor and a major influence and inspiration. This was the start of a new chapter in my art life. I got to experience firsthand what the life and practice of a professional artist looked and felt like. Sometimes, I feel as though I learned more in those years of apprenticeship than I did in school itself. This line of work was a niche in my area, and I took off with it running, working for as many artists as I could and learning new and useful bits of knowledge from each one. This insight and hands-on experience translated effortlessly into my studio practice, where I was able to operate like a professional for myself.

Currently, after years of development and trial and error, I have created a unique method of art-making that bridges the gap between painting and sculpture. Using a combination of life experience and imagination, my work consists of high gloss sculpted canvas layered with house paint and made firm with epoxy resin. A method that came to me originally by accident was a spout of destruction while tearing old paintings from their stretchers and crumpling them up as a means to reuse the stretcher bars. After stopping to look at this pile of crumpled canvases, I was immediately inspired and set to work to find a way to make paintings that captured this essence of fast-paced, organized chaos. Luckily for me, my father is a boat builder, and his workshop was directly below my studio. A workshop where he built boats using fiberglass fabric and epoxy resin. Though I didn’t come to this conclusion immediately, once I did, it took many failed pieces to perfect it.

My ability to express myself verbally has always felt insufficient, but This work has become a way to work through my emotions physically. It’s a full-body experience with highs and lows and, in many ways, resembling exercise or a dance. There are hours of contemplative and seemingly mundane prep work that needs to be done. Sometimes, the prep for these pieces can take me 60 hours before resin is ever introduced. This is by no means a negative. This calm before the storm allows me to mentally prepare myself and ensure I have set the field for the game to be played smoothly. Once everything is prepped and resin is on the table, the subconscious takes over, and the dance or sometimes battle begins. Some pieces come together at the end in 15 minutes. Others never reach a place of contentedness. There’s no way of knowing how it will go as it’s a very unruly material that I will never have full control of, and that’s the way I like it.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

They say hindsight is 20/20, and I find that to be mostly accurate. My qualities, skills, and areas of knowledge are based very much on my upbringing and experiences. A good piece of advice to anyone embarking on a career journey is to look back at your life and see what sticks out. Often, there are lines through life that keep reappearing and can be hard to notice until you take the time to reassess your history. For me, I knew I liked working with my hands, that I was a hands-on learner, that I liked to draw and paint, and I loved to solve problems. Only after stopping and looking back did I notice these are all qualities that fit my career and work to my advantage in the field of art-making. While introspection is a great way to help understand your past and, therefore, your future, the next best piece of advice I can give is to be open to opportunities. Many opportunities will present themselves to you; it’s up to you to take them regardless of whether they seem difficult or not. The harder they are, the more you progress. Starting on this journey, I had very little knowledge of the way the art world worked. But I said yes to 99% of the opportunities that arose, even if I didn’t know I could achieve them. Fake it till you make it! You’ll learn as you go.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

By definition, being emotionally overwhelmed means being completely submerged by your thoughts and emotions about all of life’s current problems, to the point where you lack productivity and feel frozen or paralyzed. I believe this is a common feeling among us all, and why shouldn’t it be? Life is hard! But life is also beautiful. Often, we can take the world around us for granted, especially in an age where everything we want is easily accessible. The secret to eliminating negative emotions of any kind comes with one mighty weapon: gratitude. Gratitude is the key to happiness. Being thankful for what we have. You can even take it further and be thankful for what other people have. Gratitude has no bounds and can reinforce even the weakest of fortifications. Next time you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, try saying out loud five things you’re grateful for. You could just list off the five senses. You could list off five foods. Five friends. There are infinite things to be grateful for, and once you notice and can remember that, life will never seem so heavy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.armatureprojects.com/artists-main/joseph-clarke
• Instagram: jclarke_art
• Other: Also, feel free to visit the Gallery where I am the associate director.

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