Artist Profile: Clark Sorensen

Clark Sorensen with his work
photo by Erin O’Neill

Artist: Clark Sorensen
Business name: clarkmade
Location: San Francisco, CA
Website: clarkmade

Your work is certainly unique, Clark. How do you describe it?
I am currently working on hand built Porcelain Urinal Sculptures. I do other things in porcelain and clay, but my urinals are the things that are getting me the most notice and are my focus at the moment.

What is your creative process like?
I get a lot of my ideas and work out details while lying in bed in the morning. I love lying in a warm bed in a dark room and I do my best creating at this time. I then continue my ideas on paper and sometimes make small models to work out 3-d issues. When I actually get to work on the actual piece I have all sorts of diagrams and even some profiles cut out of cardboard to help as the shapes grow. I work on several pieces at the same time and work for several hours on each. I find my biggest challenge is keeping on task. It is so easy to get distracted and grab my sketchbook or check email or feel like I need to clean up or organize. I think coming up with new ideas and working the design ideas out in my head are the most fun and certainly the easiest parts to the artistic process. The execution and completion is the hard part and takes a lot of focus and determination.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I think that there are so many things that contribute to what I am doing and where I am at with my art now that it is hard to list or even think of them all.

I am always aware that several times a day I hearken back to my college experience and what I learned. The objectivity and discipline that was drummed into me is something I am always striving for and grateful that I was taught. I had some very tough art professors who seemed to delight in making us start over and over and not get attached to anything we were doing. It seemed so mean and vindictive at the time but it really is an important principle to accept as an artist. As a commercial artist and animator I had to practice this same discipline – you need to do your best but then move on and try it again with a different approach if it isn’t exactly what is wanted for the job. I constantly have to remind myself to just move forward and not cry over the piece that was almost finished that I dropped or the one that has a huge crack after the final firing or the piece that is just plain ugly. I don’t think I could have gotten to this point if I hadn’t learned this lesson in school and work. Plowing forward isn’t always easy but I know that it is the only way to achieve any sort of high level.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
What a great question. My first thought would be paper and pencil but I have a better one – I couldn’t live without a garbage can.

I think it can be so liberating to just throw something away and not see it anymore. Then I can move on and start from scratch. I used to give away my early pieces but I started visiting friends who proudly displayed these monstrosities and I wanted to die! Of course I keep some pieces around for a while before discarding them and it is often hard to part with things that have taken so much energy and time but it is so necessary and cathartic to just smash a piece and start all over.

What inspires you to create?
Wow, I don’t think I know what truly inspires me or motivates me to create. It has always been a part of my temperament. I have always loved to make things. My parents have told me time and again that I hated coloring books when I was a young child and just wanted blank paper instead. I think the qualities that inspire me in other artists are flawless execution and ingenious originality.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
I keep going because I have learned by past experience that it is rarely the first try that succeeds either technically or artistically. I know the next attempt will always be better.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Welcome criticism and comment and then have the confidence and determination to make the final decision.Keep trying to improve. There is always room for improvement.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Life, friends, food, wine, worry, email, sleep, etc. I wish I could say I had some hidden expertise or hobby but in the rest of my life I am a dabbler.

What’s your favorite comfort food?
I like to cook and have a weakness for sweets – especially cookies and pies, anything that is flakey and sweet! And if I can make some artistic project out of it – watch out!

As a final note, Clark’s work was mentioned and shown in Time Magazine, March 5, 2007 on page 22. I’m proud to have gotten to him first