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\n2019 VERMONT ARTIST TO WATCH<\/p>\n
\n2019 VERMONT ARTIST TO WATCH<\/p>\n
When I first arrived at the Fleming Museum of Art in the summer of 2015, our director Janie Cohen was curating an exhibition of contemporary art in wood for that coming fall. I got to accompany her to Derbes\u2019 studio–then on Pine Street in Burlington as part of the package that came with his Barbara Smail Award from Burlington City Arts–to select work for the show. We chose three of Derbes\u2019 wood sculptures, chain-sawed from whole trunks into polyhedrons, then painted in colored and black-and-white squares that create complex spatial illusions. He had left one of the works unpainted because it was spalted, a beautiful pattern caused by fungus. After he oiled it, he found a mushroom growing out of a knot. He left the mushroom as part of the work, even gluing it back on when it fell off. It was either during that first studio visit, or during the South End Art Hop that year, that I got to see Clark\u2019s \u201cTruck Lot Gallery\u201d, his giant \u201csketchbook\u201d spray-painted on the sides of tractor-trailers in a well-hidden backlot on Pine Street.<\/p>\n
I stayed aware of Derbes\u2019 work in the three years since then, largely through social media. Occasionally I would see him post a work labeled, for example, \u201cLate 20th-early 21st century, Mississippi River school painting, artist unknown\/anonymous.\u201d He sold these works on eBay, using the handle \u201cMississippi River School Dealer\u201d (Derbes\u2019 is originally from Louisiana). In August 2018, another post of Clark\u2019s caught my attention: he had built an \u201cart farmstand\u201d at the end of his driveway, an L-shaped fence onto which he hangs two pieces of art almost every day. He sells the work for an affordable price, \u201cbasically an hourly wage.\u201d He says these works are \u201c(hobby)artwork,\u201d sometimes casual paintings he dashed off quickly the day before, or something he did and then put away years ago. Despite his modesty, and their humorous titles, the works are always beautifully done, attractive and compelling, and sell quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtists to Watch 2019\u201d is a survey of contemporary Vermont artists that appeared as special feature in <\/em>Vermont Art Guide #9 and in an exhibition at the Vermont Arts Council, January 7-February 28, 2019.\u00a0<\/em>ABOUT THE PROJECT<\/a> | <\/strong>GET THE MAGAZINE<\/strong><\/a> Clark Derbes was born in New Orleans and raised in Baton Rouge. In his youth, Derbes was exposed to the vernacular craft arts of the South, which are reflected in his work. Derbes is represented by West Branch Gallery in Stowe, Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Massachusetts, Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Baton Rouge Gallery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta, and Devin Borden Gallery in Houston. He was the 2015 winner of the Barbara Smail Award from Burlington City Arts. He lives and works in Charlotte. Learn more about Derbes and his art on Facebook @clarkderbes<\/a>, on his YouTube channel @dclarkderbes<\/a>, and through his video series, \u201cPublic Art School\u201d, available at VCAM, www.vermontcam.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI love an innovative use of material, whether it be a clever utilization of found objects, or a thoughtful re-thinking of a traditional medium…I hope that every person who walks into our museum finds at least one thing that they enjoyed looking at; otherwise a museum is just a chore.\u201d Located on the campus of the University of Vermont, the Fleming Museum of Art houses the state\u2019s most comprehensive collection of art and anthropology. See more at\u00a0www.flemingmuseum.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\nWhat strikes me about these projects is Derbes\u2019 clear and successful effort to make art accessible, to strip it of its pretensions\u2014an appropriate endeavor for someone who is also a prolific painter of murals, both community-driven commissions, and what he calls the \u201cself-commissioned\u201d variety. But Derbes\u2019 succeeds at accessibility not only because of how he distributes his art, but the nature of the art itself. This is evident in time-lapse videos he posts of himself painting them. As he fills in shaped pieces of wood with curving and angled colored lines, his rapid process can seem like doodling, but with a more fulfilling end-product. It\u2019s a reminder that great art can be as simple as making appealing colors and shapes. In making it seem effortless (though I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not), Derbes\u2019 reminds us that art is something that can happen without the immense mental strain that we usually assign to it.
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\nWhat all this amounts to is a clear, unbounded and un-self-conscious love of creating. It\u2019s an incredible motivator to overcome the fear to create, seeing a renowned artist be so free himself, not out of an egoistic sense of his own talent, but out of a pure sense of joy in applying color to surface\u2014any surface he can get his hands on. Not all art has to be responding directly to the political moment, but I would argue that in this tumultuous time there is something almost political, certainly something healing, in surrendering to the contentment of making without doubt. \u2014Andrea Rosen
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\nThis Artist to Watch 2019 is a special feature in Vermont Art Guide #9. Vermont Art Guide is a full color, quarterly, printed magazine about contemporary art in Vermont. Our goal is to connect the entire state\u2019s art community by sharing information about exhibitions and events; present a picture of Vermont art and art in Vermont, to tell our story; and to build an audience for Vermont art inside the state and out. We hope you will join us and SUBSCRIBE TODAY<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAbout the Artist<\/h2>\n
About the Curator<\/h2>\n
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Andrea Rosen
\nFleming Museum, Curator<\/strong><\/p>\n