SELECTED WORKS 2024
Selected works 2023
SELECTED WORKS FROM 2022
A FEW THOUGHTS ON THIS AND THAT.
The world seems to be a little different today that it was, just recently. We are still experiencing differences of opinion on how to live amongst a global pandemic and stress, anger, bitterness all seems to be at an all-time high. Ty Nathan Clark turned off the news feeds, ignored certain social media sites and found space for breathing deep, reading, studying, listening, and daydreaming. The artist focused on joyous, funny and beautiful things in his daily routine. This is where the idea for this specific body of work came from, titled A Few Thoughts on This and That.
Each painting shares the artist’s thoughts throughout moments in the last year. The artist created the abstract pieces in a homemade form of relief painting. Relief painting is in a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix- which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface- is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas the recessed areas will not. The artist took the basic idea of relief printing and created his own printing plates out of large and small pieces of cardboard. He would apply paint to one side of the cardboard and place it on top of canvas. The artist would then apply pressure on the cardboard by walking on top of it. When the cardboard is removed, a print of the painted image is left on the canvas. An avid writer, note taker and book markup fiend, the artist is often grabbing snippets of his writing or thoughts on specific chapters or poems he reads. These little word bites constantly become titles and thoughts behind his paintings.
Art critic and acclaimed author Dr. James Daichendt has dubbed Ty Nathan Clark an abstract philosopher, because of the amount of thought, story, and purpose that he puts into his bodies of work. Lines, flowers upon flowers, color and marks fill each painting like a poet would fill their note pad with words. Ty Nathan Clark uses the colors and layers playfully within each other the same way a daydream could sneak up on someone relaxing under a tree on a cool day in the fall. The artist hopes the work will bring viewers a relaxing and joyful environment, the same way one would experience reading a Mary Oliver or Rainer Maria Rilke poem in the middle of a blooming garden.
OTHER WORK FROM 2021.
Selected works from the series “Here’s to New Beginnings” 2020-2021 and “Paintings to Sounds” 2020-2021
SELECTED WORKS ON CANVAS 2020
Selected works are from “Here’s to New Beginnings”, “Paintings to Sound” and “I’m a Mess, but I am OK. Thanks” bodies of work.
SELECTED WORKS ON CANVAS 2018
Selected works are from the series “Lessons in Remembering Pt 1.”
LESSONS IN REMEMBERING PT. 1
"Lessons in Remembering Pt 1." is an abstract expressionist body of work expressing a life lived, memories gained and visions of what could be brought forth for eyes to see. Our memories are extremely important and vital to our human existence. Memory is the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. Our brains are a wondrous, complex, mysterious creation with the ability to store and throw away information at an incredible pace. Why do we forget certain moments and why do we remember certain moments? Our senses have the ability to trigger memories of people, places and emotions upon a moments notice. As the artist grows older he continues to practice remembering as a way to not forget things that he should always have in the forefront of his mind.
We are the collectors of time. This series of work is a collection of bits and pieces of memory and reflection. Each work is a representation of things that can not be spoken. The artist uses color as thought or reflection, texture as metaphor, line representing story in constant flux, marks exclaiming chaos and negative space welcoming cosmos, welcoming the audience into his memory.
“We can climb inside the cupboard and close the doors behind us, or climb inside, sit against the back wall, leave the doors wide open and remember it all.” - Ty Nathan Clark
SELECTED WORKS on Canvas 2017-2018
THESE ARE MY SHAPES. A CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE?
Selected works from the series “These are My Shapes? A Conversation With Someone.” that follow the artists last series “Fragments” which discussed how ones character/personality is formed over a lifetime.
“These are My Shapes” follows the process of fragmentation over the artists own life as it continues to shape him. The entire body of work is a conversation between the artist and an audience, there are 18 total pieces that create this conversation that embodies a sarcastic yet subtle tone, asking for the audience (who are all on their phones and not present) to truly listen to the joys and sorrows that encompass the last 43 years of his life.
Each piece follows along a 43 year timeline, as the years increase the layers of media begin to accumulate in the form of canvas pieces, cloth, burlap and string. These layers are an example of the layers that continue to build up in ones life forming their personality and character over time.
SELECTED WORKS ON CANVAS 2017
FRAGMENTS
A selection of works from the 2017 series "Fragments". The follow up from "Cosmos in Chaos" series, Fragments explores the pieces within personal history that makes up an individual and their character. Do we start whole and become fragmented or are we born fragmented and become whole? This is the question that the artist explores in this series.
SELECTED WORKS ON CANVAS 2016
COSMOS IN THE CHAOS. (THE HARMONY OF SPIRIT AND MATTER)
Selected pieces from Ty Clark's 2016 series. "Cosmos in the Chaos" that was brought to life during a residency in Budapest, Hungary. During his residency he was confronting the loss of a dear friends husband, who had been hospitalized for brain damage, and kidney loss after a tragic scooter accident. During this residency, Ty was reading Elie Wiesel's "Open Heart" as well as his favorite book "Walking on Water" by Madeline L'Engle. Both of these important works weighed heavy on his soul, through process and creative work.
Ty's studio space during the residency was a small basement space where 3 families survived Nazi Germany as well as Russian attacks. The power of that space and its surroundings, coupled with life in the balance, brought forth this series.
From a blog post on Day 7 of his residency:
"I have heard the stories from our Residency Director, her family suffering at the hands of both Nazi Germany and Russia. Family in concentration camps, bombings, raising chickens inside the house, hiding for survival in the basement, all moments I have learned from books and film. I am changed, again. My eyes have observed many peoples and my ears have heard similar stories first hand, all over this world. “Leonard Berstien says that for him music is cosmos in chaos. And it is not true only of music; all art is cosmos, cosmos found within the chaos.” (page 17) I have truly found cosmos, here in Budapest, cosmos that is resting amongst the chaos of history and story. And this has led me to create. There is reason to why my journey has led me here to this specific moment in time." - Ty Nathan Clark
THE PROPHET
Selected pieces from Ty Clark's 2016 series "The Prophet" based upon the writing of Kahlil Gibron.
