Friday, December 5, 2008
PRINCESS ANNE, MD – Christopher Clarke, a senior at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore majoring in commercial photography and sequential arts, is the feature artist for the upcoming Department of Fine Arts Graduating Senior Show, December 9-18 in the Mosely Gallery on the UMES campus. Gallery visitors can meet the artist at an opening reception on Thursday, December 11, from 4-6 p.m.
Clarke will showcase pieces in digital photography, both black and white and color, and some traditional silver prints. When asked which media he preferred, he said, “I don’t really have one, because it’s hard to choose one way to express myself. And that’s what art really is to me (an expression of myself).”
As most of today’s college students know, internships have become a key to gaining valuable real life work experiences and providing opportunities for making professional contacts. Clarke interned in New York with Kelton Labs, a high-end fine arts developing company that processes and prints black and white and digital work for photographers.
Recently, he has been working on character design for sequential or comic book art and his other media. UMES is currently the only state school in the country offering the sequential art program. I would like to start my own comic industry-never know where that will go, said Clarke. Other potential future plans include teaching or pursuing professional photography.
“I appreciate the opportunity this school (UMES) has given me, from being a tennis scholarship athlete to becoming a hard working artist,” said Clarke. “It’s just an eye opening experience.”
Clarke’s artist statement is: “Art is a gift given with vision and hope. Without vision you re making nothing to be desired; and without hope, nothing will ever come to pass. It s something you must strive to do with unwavering faith and work ethic. This business is not a business, but a lifestyle. Lived incorrectly or without these measures to continue and it shall surely fall victim to conformity-and that, my friends, isn t art.”
The son of Leo and Donna Clarke, he calls Washington, D.C., home. “Go, Redskins!” he said.
Events at the Mosely Gallery are free and open to the public. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact the Mosely Gallery at 410-651-7770 or visit www.umes.edu/mosely.
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Gail C.S. Stephens, assistant director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580, gcstephens@umes.edu.
