Tess Clark
Artist Statement
My work investigates cycles within the natural world and their contingency to the nature of being. I approach an intuitive practice from recording, observing, and articulating my experiences with nature’s growth and decay – finding meaning and wonder in everyday encounters. In my field work, I adventure into the ravines outside my studio, and study present ecologies which awaken imaginative play. I reflect on the composure of decomposition, and the thoroughness of symbiosis. As I embrace energy and stillness through meditation, the forest communicates perspective realities while inviting me to embody their natures. In this process, I am both the journalist and the composer. The messenger and the choreographer. These experiences influence the sensibilities engaged across the different mediums I create within.
By co-creating with materiality and ambience, the works manifest imaginative landscapes and shift perspective by both accident and intentionality. Each medium I work in explores texture, color, layering, and feeling within its own unique ability. In the paintings, it is through a collaboration with the nature of the paint that provokes the aliveness of it.
While keeping distance from conceived narratives and predictable space and time, these works exist within an essence and coherence that is unique to one’s own perception and experience with the physical world, and with our senses. They invite you to look closely and immerse yourself in the worlds within worlds. To reflect on your oneness with nature– to journey through growth and decay.