Meet Stan Clark

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stan Clark and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Creative people have all kinds of avenues today for getting their work into the hands and heads of the public. One can work with galleries and museums, with art agencies, do short-term stints on corporate projects, and even use the power of the internet to reach most of their clientele. But at the end of the day, the product that an artist creates is as unique to them as a fingerprint. That wellspring of talent can be hired out, but it can’t be sold or traded off. It always remains an extension of the artist. So I believe the goal of almost any artist should be to achieve a place of autonomy, and that means being the captain on one’s own ship, for better or worse.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was a kid who never set foot in an art museum until I was an adult in undergrad. I always wanted to be an artist, but my early exposure had been via paperback book covers, comics, the sunday news paper, crazy stuff you’d see printed on candy and firework wrappers, etc. I enrolled in Art School as an illustrator, but I quickly became bored with being taught the same pen and ink techniques as all the other students. I wanted to learn how to paint with oil and tempera, to learn printmaking, to get weird with the materials. It took some petitioning and a lot of extra work, but I eventually convinced the administration to allow me to structure my curriculum around classes I believed would be important to my personal style. This put me in an odd lane right between what would be considered graphic, illustrative art, and so-called fine art. It’s the same lane my work lives in today. I’m lucky enough to get illustration gigs where the client really wants a painterly style in the work, but I also have gallery work that’s known for its graphic, almost silver-age comic book style technique. I do use computers to speed up the design process in some cases, but the end product of most of my work is on paper, which is the exact medium that brought art to my attention all those years ago.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in Summerhill, and we’ve a couple of real hidden gems over this way. Talat Market and Little Bear would be top choices for dinner. Chaka Khan Hacienda, Sister Louisa’s Sunday Service, or House in the Park would all be great ways to show out of towners how Atlanta gets down in the summer. Bring a fan though. I’m also looking forward to Atlanta Art Week this fall.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Art isn’t created in a vacuum. It requires an ecosystem, and it exists as a dialogue between the artist, viewers, and the creative milieu of the comunity. I feel lucky that Altanta has an incredibly supportive arts community which tends to celebrate each other and has an appetite for bigger, better, and more engaging projects in the public sphere. There are far too many people I would love to name here but will give a shoutout to Kai Lin art, who has always been super supportive of me and other artists on its roster. The Atlanta Contempory has also provided a great space not just to show art or hold studio space, but also to foster connections in the community. I’ve made a lot of great connections at their events

Website: https://stanclarkstudio.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_stan_clark?igsh=MXc5c29lYmFtZTR6MQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr