47 East 200 North, St. George, Utah 84770
Phone: 435.627.4525
Fax: 435.627.4526
Hours: Monday-Saturday 10-5
3rd Thursdays 10-9pm
with Art Conversations at 7pm
September 22 through December
29, 2012
Main Gallery For the Love of Travel & Art by Sue Cotter & Spike
Ress
Mezzanine Gallery A Dream by J. Kirk Richards &
Brian Kershisnik & Metal Imagined by Matt Clark
Legacy Gallery Gallery 12
Art
Conversations at 7pm
October 18 Sue Cotter & Spike Ress
November 15 J. Kirk Richards & Brian Kershisnik
December 20 What is Real Pt. 3: Do Titles Matter
October 26
& 27, 2012 “For the Love of Art” Home Fundraising Tour
Matt Clark is
a lifelong resident of the southern Utah region and grew up on a ranch north of
St. George. He taught himself to
weld and work with metal beginning at age fifteen when he purchased a welding
machine. Little did he know his
early interest in working with metal attaching trailer hitches would lead to a
career as a full-time metal sculptor.
As a child and
teenager, he dreamed of becoming a world champion cowboy, but at age 17, he experienced
a serious spinal cord injury. After more than two months in the ICU and six
months in spinal rehab, the doctors dismissed him to a rest home and gave Matt
three years to live. Medicine offered him no hope for a future, but something
deep inside him said, “Wait a minute. I am going to define my life.”
Thirty-four
years later, he still works from a wheelchair. His physical limitations have
required him to create his own tools and processes for doing things, but his
accident has also gives him the opportunity to recreate himself. This is perhaps expressed best by
the inscription on my sculpture The Healer, displayed at the Craig Hospital Healing Garden in
Denver, Colorado: “My body has been broken and may not heal, but my spirit can
and will transcend my limitations.”.
Matt writes, “Creating objects of
beauty is not my goal as an artist.
Beauty is intended to please the senses with an immediate response. My intent is power of expression, which
for me is deeper than the senses, contemplative, even spiritual.”
He credits his success in the art world
to business acumen. Clarks says,
“I was bored one afternoon and had a pile of scrap.” He welded up a dinosaur and was surprised to find that “people
liked it.” He started by making
gifts for friends and family, and then he moved on to selling his work.
The steel,
stainless steel, copper, stone and found objects he uses in his art were
originally created to perform a specific function. At some point, the discarded
now found objects had outlived their usefulness, were broken, and without
value. Matt surrounds himself with them and asks the question “What is the best
purpose for this object?” He then searches
for each piece’s innate power and then resurrects it and gives it a new life
through welding, cutting, grinding, and forging. For him, the transformation of these objects is
symbolic of his own journey—of ultimately transcending broken dreams and
heartache. His artistic process is a reenactment of his life’s journey.
“I did not set out to become an artist,
and I had no arts education,” he says.
In fact, he had studied business in college and had been working as an
administrator at Dixie State College.
Clark didn’t know he would have such a successful art career, or that
his business background would be so important to his achievements as a
sculptor.
“There are a lot of talented
individuals out there,” says Clark.
“But if you lack the ability to market your art and manage your art
business, it is dang near impossible to earn a living as an artist.”
A capable marketer as well as a
sculptor, Clark sells his work in Juniper Sky Gallery in Kayenta, through art
festivals, private commissions, and interior designers. His work falls into two main
categories: the whimsical and the
contemporary both formed of natural rocks and welded metal. Festival goers may remember his
roadrunners, rock animals, and other creatures on motorcycles.
Some of his recent accomplishments and
awards include: 2009 presented with the Art Around the Corner Partner in the
Arts award; 2004 purchase award
winner for the Art On the Corner competition in Grand Junction, CO; 2004 first
place sculpture St. George Art Festival; 2002 best of sculpture at Art in the
Park, St. George, UT; 2000-2001 first place in sculpture at the St. George Art
Museum’s Regional Exhibition; 1997 best of show award at Art in the Park;
Displaying artist for three years at Loveland Invitational Sculpture Show in
Loveland, CO
His advice to artists who want to make
it on art alone: “Get rid of the
pre-conceived notion that an artist has to fail or be poor, and replace it with
extreme confidence and a positive attitude. Be willing to combine art and business. Understand the role of art in people’s
lives and be willing to interact with people on a professional basis.”
(stgeorgemagazine.com April 2006)
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