Brock Clow WHAT Artist - Mixed Media WHERE Crow Lake, 279-2226, b3339@hotmail.com Bittersweet Gallery, 1694 Burnstown Rd., Burnstown, 432-5254; Tay River Gallery, 28 Wilson St. W., Perth, 264-5448; Scherzo Pub, 207 Wellington St., Kingston, 549-5241 SHOWS Café Comus, 73 Mill St., Almonte, 256-6006, Nov. 5-30 WHY "I need to express myself - and it's fun!" Previous Artist Trading Cards	See samples of Brock's work

Brock Clow - And Now for Something New and Different!
By Sally Hansen

... and exciting! Not interesting (code for I don't think I like this very much); not experimental (although it is); the adjective that best describes Brock Clow's mixed-media paintings is EXCITING!

Clow (whose name rhymes with now) is a 22-year-old artist living on the edge of Crow Lake past Sharbot Lake on the way to Kingston. It's a tiny hamlet strung around a beautiful lake in a very rural setting more conducive to contemplation than excitement. So he's young, he's authentic, and he's largely self-taught - where's the excitement?

New Eyes
If the greatest gift of art is helping us to see with new eyes, this young artist is truly gifted. Clow reaches into his fresh, unfettered imagination to present familiar objects - a crow, a cat lying on its back, a tiger's eye - in a totally different context and with a totally different emotional impact than we have experienced before.

Weeks after seeing it, I can visually evoke both the image and the emotional impact of his painting of a raven. A few simple white lines etched into a complex, textured, mixed media background make it clear why this bird enjoys totemic status in many cultures. I notice Brock is reading Chinese Wisdom and Animal Speak - The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small by Ted Andrews.

New Media
Part of the excitement comes from Clow's drive to innovate. Most of his current work is being done on wood. He uses his brushes "more to stir paint than anything else." He mixes his paints with grout, with sand, with mica; he uses his fingertips to dab other natural materials directly onto thick layers of drying paint.

"It's much better for sculpting. I've always responded to texture - I love the sensation of touch. I'm terrible in galleries - I want to touch everything. I always tell people to touch my paintings." He uses glass as a canvas, and paints on both sides to create unusual, striking effects. He attacks painted surfaces with knives, routers, sticks - always experimenting with anything he can lay his hands on to create new effects. He likes it a lot better than "just pushing around paint."

New Stimuli
Brock's mind, his consciousness, his imagination, are unconstrained. He is attuned to a spiritual world that informs and influences his work. He is open to possibilities, voices, images that, for whatever reason, I can't even perceive. His most direct inspiration is live music, and he carries a sketch book with him everywhere. His first big piece was inspired by a piece of graffiti.

His work defies categorization. But his pieces are recognizable as Brock Clow paintings. They are big, bold, but not brash. There is a tenderness, a profound emotional depth in them. I can't stop looking again and again at the crow's expression - is it wisdom? is it contemplation? is it apprehension? What does this young artist say to me when he mimics the expression on the woman's face, and the shape of her eyes, on the rabbit she is holding?

In another vivid painting I notice the tree that is a nose on a face that is the centre of a sunflower that has footprint petals. In one piece Clow conjures up a myriad of philosophical ponderings from as many world cultures and religions. I ask, and he tells me the piece is a celebration of the common theme of groundedness that runs through many of the world's spiritual philosophies.

I Have to Do It My Way
Hampered by intractable learning disabilities, this sixth-generation Crow Laker has had a tough passage navigating through the educational system. Fortunately for him and for us, he has found for himself the niche in which he excels. When the system doesn't work for you, it's not surprising that someone as creative as Brock would resort to invention.

He studied creative arts and material arts at Queen Elizabeth Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Kingston, but he invents his art form as he goes. He tells me, "You've got one roadmap, and that's inside yourself - in the end, everything else falls away." He credits Sue Bartley, his teacher and mentor at QECVI, with giving him the confidence to approach his art from the perspective of "How do I want to express myself?" rather than "What is acceptable?"

He attracts attention without seeking it. His first show was the result of a chance meeting with a woman who stopped in to look at an apartment he was subletting in Kingston. She found his works so compelling that she arranged to have them displayed at a restaurant in Hamilton. That was a year ago. He has sold 17 canvases since then. He has never been rejected at any gallery or venue he has approached. In a recent trip to Toronto, reception was outstanding - his works will be shown in two galleries, a café and a restaurant in 2003.

Two other patrons merit special recognition for helping this young artist achieve so much so fast. Brock wants Doug Murphy in Kingston to know how much his help is appreciated. And yes, we expect mothers to be supportive, but Debbie Jones, Brock's mother, is exceptional even by that standard. It was heart-warming to see them together.

New View
If you like The Group of Seven, you're already a supporter of (older) new art. You won't want to miss Brock Clow's fresh, from-the-heart works on display at Café Comus in Almonte (where you can meet the artist at a reception on Sunday, November 10th from 2:30-5PM), Bittersweet Gallery in Burnstown and the Tay River Gallery in Perth (he had a piece at the Keffer Gallery in Almonte as well, but it sold already). You can also contact him at 279-2226 or by email at b3339@hotmail.com.