MATTHEW ALLAN CLARKE

My name is Matthew Allan Clarke and I'm a Red Seal concrete placer and finisher based in Edmonton, Alberta. I was born in Edmonton in 1986, and I got My Bachelor's of Fine Art from the University of Alberta. And much like many other artists, I have a day job. My job, as stated above, is placing and finishing concrete. Its a very physically demanding job, and I work long hours outside. Its not very exciting. You make the concrete flat, then you smooth it out, and then you polish it.

Repeat...

Its not what I want to do with my life, but bills need to be payed.

In order to cope with the monotony of my work, and to express my individual sense of self, I make art.

I look to the pieces done by Peter Hide, Wassily Kandinsky, and Louise Nevelson. I then make forms with foam and wood in an abstract pattern. I then pour concrete, my trade material, into the form. This results in a very sophisticated abstract totem with interesting, rhythmic structures and aggressive drawn elements.