Review

"Divine Love," Colored Pencil on Somerset Satin Paper

Kelly John Clark
Let Me Have More Than You Want To Give And I Will Give Back More Than You Want To Take

Noon-6 p.m.

Wonder Fair Art Gallery
803 Massachusetts
Lawrence, KS
785.393.8525

Hours: Noon-6 p.m. Thursday- Sunday
Runs through: March 7

Artist’s site: http://www.kellyjohnclark.com
Gallery site: http://www.wonderfair.com

There is a power in quietness, softness and meditation that words cannot capture. Kelly John Clark has harnessed that elusive energy and put it to work in every aspect of his life and art.

Over the course of my mature years — in many cities and relationships and situations at home; throughout school and teaching and bodies of work; despite my wish to sometimes change things — there have always been close ties between my life and my work, Clark writes. Each feeds and follows the next, the mood and quality of one is expressed in the mood and quality of the other, and my motivations for one enable my execution of the other.

In my life I have gravitated towards activities which allow me personal interaction with my community as well as unhurried, quietly productive, and meticulously routined days. The same is true for my studio practice, which has taken various forms over time, from aerosol painting to printmaking to sewing to drawing, but which has always maintained a confessional nature with a focus on calm colors, labored patterns, and meditative detailing.

That practice could be likened to working an inner garden (or vineyard; pick your simile). Either way, Clark's most recent harvest can be found in the solo show, Let Me Have More Than You Want To Give And I Will Give Back More Than You Want To Take, at the Wonder Fair Art Gallery in downtown Lawrence.

There's a harvest metaphor in the title of the show, too, which should ring especially true to anyone who has ever grown summer squash. Clark comes by that reference honestly: He not only gardens, but is also learning how to recycle seeds and make his own compost (feeding that process with his excess paper).

And, looking at his work, it's possible to see his pencil marks as furrows in a field of paper ... but with an instant harvest of color.

An online reproduction of Divine Love, pictured above, can only hint at the intricacy of Clark's line work and his subtleties of shading. Still, there is enough there to invite the eye to an extended exploration and the mind to a time of meditation.

As always, though, the only way to experience the true power of any work is to see it in person ... and take the show's title not as metaphor but as instruction and promise.

Giving Clark's works time and silence — more, perhaps, than is comfortable for our talkative, kinetic species — will give them space to return an overflowing yield.

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