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An Interview With Alan M. Clark

www.alanmclark.com

Alan M. Clark illustrated Wormhole's vintage chapbook Edgar Allan Poe's Dark Dreams .

Wormhole Books: How evident was your talent for the visual when you were a boy?

Alan Clark: I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. My parents kept a small journal of the "silly" things their children said. In it they recorded that in response to being told by my first grade teacher that I had done a good job drawing a bird, I told her, "Yes, I know. I'm going to be an artist."

WB: How did you get your start as a professional artist and illustrator?

AC: I built a portfolio as per other illustrator's instructions and started making appointments with art directors in New York.

WB: When did you know you wanted to write as well as illustrate?

AC: I had friends who wrote and I guess the desire rubbed off. I have written since a teenager, but never took it seriously until I started the Bovine Smoke Society in Nashville. We were a creative group, artists photographers, writers, musicians, etc... who got together once a week to share what we were working on. Most of the members were writers and I just got excited about writing.

WB: And what circumstances impelled you to become a publisher as well?

AC: I had gained most of the tools to do it and so thought to try my hand. I have had limited success, but have worked on some really cool projects.

WB: In Edgar Allan Poe's Dark Dreams where, in a sense, you're collaborating with the late Mr. Poe, describe the process of taking the story or poem and visually interpreting it in terms of art.

AC: These are well-known stories that have been illustrated many times over the years. I tried to get at the madness in the stories, something they all have in common. There comes a time in each one of them when you, the reader, understand that you are experiencing a seriously ill point of view. I tried to come up with images for those moments.

WB: Talk a bit about the forms of collaboration you've tackled. How do you like the process of working with another talented person?

AC: When I collaborate with someone, a new artist is created, one with more experience, technique, etc... I learn a lot from being a part of that artist.

I have collaborated in photography, painting and drawing (both fine art and Illustration), mixed media, sculpture, writing (short-shorts, short stories and novels), book design, book proposals, radio plays, and interactive CD-ROM.
I like to be there in person most of all. I have done collaborations in writing via e-mail, but it is a slow, plodding process and my excitement for the work has to be rekindled every time it is my turn to work on the piece. If I can work in the same room with someone, that is when the best stuff happens because of the level of excitement generated.

WB: What about with art editors? Do they count as either collaborators, after a fashion, or as talented people?

AC: It varies widely. Some artists don't like being given direction. They don't like the constraints of working for others. I've always found it very satisfying working with parameters imposed by others and yet pulling off something that I'm really proud of. Sometimes that takes a lot more effort, but is well worth it.

WB: In the two volumes of the original anthology Imagination Fully Dilated , a wide variety of writers used your paintings as inspiration. How do you gauge the results?

AC: Certainly not by my own expectations. The stories should be good pieces that can stand on their own, even without the artwork. I was thrilled to see what writers did with my work and honored that they would be willing to do it. That my work could inspire folks to such weirdness is incredible for me. It is a very exciting process.

WB: Your word-and-image collaboration with Gary Braunbeck in Escaping Purgatory is quite striking. What was your collaborative process here?

AC: Once again the answer is that it varied widely. We first set a theme for the book: all the stories would be about characters dealing with personal hells. Then Gary wrote a piece based on two paintings I had done. Gary wrote a couple of pieces that I illustrated. Gary and I wrote one piece, then I illustrated it. One piece I started, based on a painting I had done, then Gary worked on it and I added more illustrations to it. One story Gary wrote based on two paintings I had done, then I added three more illustrations to it.

WB: Have you given some thought to moving from static to moving images in animation or live action film?

AC: I have had limited interest in that.

WB: You and your wife moved from the south to the Pacific northwest in the not too distant past. Has this change in landscape affected your work at all?

AC: I'm sure it has, but I cannot say how.

WB: In your career you've already achieved an incredible amount. Do you have yet unfulfilled ambitions? If so, what do you see lying before you?

AC: When I was a boy and we children asked what was for desert, my Daddy would tell us "wait-and-see-pudding." I'll wait and see.

WB: How do you see your skills as an artist evolve? As an arithmetic progression? Geometric? With quantum level jumps? Where do you suspect you're heading in the next decade or two?

AC: I just don't know what to do with this one.

WB: Who do you gain pleasure from either reading their words or viewing their art?

AC: In visual art, Jill Bauman, Rick Berrry, many of the surrealists, Jan Vermeer. In writing Lansdale, Bradbury, Poe, Clegg, Faulkner, Wells, Engstrom, Dick, Ellison, Farmer, Dickens.

WB: When it comes right down to it, what is the primary responsibility of the good visual artist?

AC: To engage an audience's imagination and cause them to question their world.

WB: And do the images you create ever surprise you?

AC: Continually. I work hard to keep it a process of discovery.

WB: Do you have any advice you'd willing to share with those who might be interested in becoming artists or writers themselves?

AC: The struggle is worth it. Be tenacious. Develop a distinctive style and approach to your work so you are not replaceable.

WB: On behalf of our readers and staff, we thank you for participating in this interview.

Edgar Allan Poe's Dark Dreams Edited by Dawn Dunn Illustrated by Alan M. Clark Learn more...