SHEPHERDSTOWN — Although Shepherd University’s year-end capstone presentations are made by graduating seniors, one of its presenters still has one more year to go until graduation. The Artist Clark, a sophomore, is the last sculpture major in the program.
Although a junior, Clark was able to participate in Shepherd’s Department of Art, Theater & Communications Capstone 2024 exhibits. The Artist Clark held a opening reception for “Reach,” a metal sculpture exhibit Friday at Alma Bea in Shepherdstown.
“They are getting rid of the program,” Clark said. “They’re hoping that maybe one day they can bring back the sculpture program, because it was a foundry-based program as far as melting metal and the casting.”
Clark said the decision to transfer to Shepherd University came at the right time. Originally from a very small town in Calhoun County, Clark was attending Glenville State University before transferring.
“When I transferred, I knew I wanted to go into sculpture,” Clark said. “I came from a program that was interdisciplinary and had a mostly ceramic program.”
According to Clark, Clinical Assistant Professor of Art and 3D Fabrication Manager Kay Dartt is the person who introduced her to foundry-based art. Furthermore, Dartt is someone whom Clark described as “a hero.”
As a U.S. Navy veteran, Clark uses art as a form of therapy to work through the trauma she has experienced while serving her country.
“All of my work is based out of that and it’s my own therapy,” Clark said. “It’s all about being on both sides of mental health and suicide. [It’s] not only having to deal with the thoughts and feelings of suicide, but also being an external person having to watch somebody go through that. What do you do? How do you deal with that? Do you reach out? Do you not? It’s hard to know and it’s hard to know how to react in those types of situations.”
At one point last year, she was unsure if she would even be able to finish the semester after a brief hospitalization. She said Dartt not only welcomed her back to class, but helped her to change her craft with a trip to see works from other metal artists.
“So Kay Dartt, she got me into foundry and stuff,” Clark said. “This is very new to me. So. Spring last year, I wasn’t doing my best. I’m a veteran, and this is all therapy and trauma art for me, so I ended up in the hospital for a while and, like, the day I got out Kay looked at me and said, ‘Hey, do you want to get in my truck with me and go down to Alabama and look at some cool metal art?’”
Clark and Dartt traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to Sloss Furnaces, a national historic landmark and industrial museum. The experience was eye-opening for Clark.
“It was definitely the thing that definitely made me want to change my craft,” Clark said. “I used to joke about being, like, the all-around, [inter-disciplinary] person that I was the master of none, but had hands in everything. I was really skilled in a whole bunch of other area, but once I saw metal, it honed in and snapped into place and it became something that was more therapeutic.”
“Reach” features pieces that are based on Clark’s pivotal moments and are cast using molds of her hands. She is grateful to have experienced the camaraderie that is involved with the metal casting process.
