Clark Stewart - Professor

Email: fstewart@utk.edu

Education: Claremont Graduate School-MFA

Clarck Stewart joined the faculty of the School of Art in 1966, and he has taught regularly at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts,Gatlinburg,TN.He has also been active in arranging exhibitions for,and as a visiting artist in the Slovak Republic.His work has explored several media directions though his career,but consistent foci have been narrative themes and intimate scales within a drawing,painting,and assemblage format.His drawings,paintings and constructions have been included in over 200 exhibitions at museums and univeresities throughout the Southeast as well as worldwide,and these have been acquired by many corporate and private collections.

Clark Stewart was granted Professor Emeritus in 2005.

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"My small acrylic and colored pencil pieces, often with stick or driftwood frames, have been evolving for the past four or five years. In many ways they continue themes and interests that have defined my work for decades.

The subjects involve interpersonal situations and encounters that stem from family life in a household that spans three generations and my work with college-age students during my three decades of teaching drawing. Living within a family that at one point comprised five very strong women, and teaching classes in which the majority of students are female, I often focus on female figures who are set in contexts that imply narratives. These stories are loose enough to let the viewer extrapolate meanings relative to their own experiences, while they also have their geneses in events from my life.

The formal aspects of the work reflect my interest in a strong physical presence of complex surfaces and textures that give the work an intense intimacy despite its small size. Craft and a sense of closure are attractive to me and function in expressive ways. The capriciousness of elements like the frames reference folk art, however loosely."