When it comes to his collage art, Peter Clark doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. Dirty hands, one would argue, is a crucial part of collage making. Using a comprehensive collection of found papers as his palette, he relies on their colors, patterns, and textures, made by their printed, written or worn surfaces. These papers are then arranged by their color and pattern to create playful imagery.
His favorite paper materiels include old maps (“for color reasons, for information or joke reasons”) which Clark utilizes, relying on the linear qualities within them to frame his collages. “They are so versatile, can be very specific or used in an abstract way,” he explained in an interview with Zoneone Arts. “I love them, they enable one to instantly play and change scale!”
Arranging his found paper in order, Clark works to achieve colors or scales, then tears, cuts, and folds the pieces and glues them into place. “If it works… great, If not start again making changes till I’m ok with it,” he relayed the messy process.
His subjects tend to center around the natural world, with his work being both creative and humoristic. “I try to inflict what amuses me onto my work,” he says. “I prefer the pieces to have different levels, and allow shadows to play within them. Less boring and predictable that way, I don’t like things to be too worked out, I am not interested in that type of thinking.”
