BYU student showcases work with ‘abstract art experience’

PROVO, Utah (AP) - Imagine a man jamming out to trap music in his studio as he rhythmically goes to town on a canvas.

This is how Stephen Clawson, a senior art major at Brigham Young University, does his paintings in the basement of his grandmother’s home, also known as his studio. That same trap music could be Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby any other day of the week, a song with a slower and more melodic essence to it, but this is how Clawson likes to work.

His work over the past seven years culminated into what he called an abstract art experience. The gallery at BYU was packed from wall-to-wall with his work.

“Some of these things are horrible paintings, but I still wanted to put them up,” Clawson said. “My teachers didn’t like it, they just wanted me to do eight pieces.”

For Clawson, art is somewhat of an escape. He added there is something crazy about painting, a feeling that he - at times - had trouble describing.

Sometimes his work just seems to click for him, other times paintings seem flat and dull. The beauty of abstract art is that you can paint over things, or as Clawson likes to do, glue things on to the canvas in a collage style.

One instance where a painting fell into place for him was when he had surgery and was still dealing with the pain. He was on some pain medicine to help recovery, and Clawson said he mixed colors to create an orange hue that seemed to fit perfectly on his canvas.

He still gets that feeling sometimes, just without the pain medicine.

Clawson also uses art as a way of expression. During his time at BYU, he had one instance where he was dealing with depression and he could not seem to get out of “the funk.”

He then heard something about the number 40 being symbolic of a period of tests, trials and tribulations.

“At the time, it was hard for me to paint at all, so I told myself I was just going to make marks, but I’m never going to get to 40,” Clawson said. “I was doing this series on these marks, tally marks, and maybe I’d get to 20, maybe 39, but I’d never get to 40.”

After this, Clawson began using those strokes or tallies a lot more. It was a point in which some of his tendencies in his work shifted.

While artwork will often change with the mood or feelings of the artist, Clawson was not one to stall before starting a painting. He tends to not overthink his first moves, he said, rather he just starts with whatever he is feeling.

“When I start painting, I’m just throwing stuff on there, gluing things on, not really too concerned with how it looks at first, and eventually, over time, things start to gel,” Clawson said. “That’s what I wanted to do for this show, rather than just having a few pristine pieces, I wanted to bring in lots of work and hang it up. Pack the space.”

Clawson will be graduating from BYU in December with his Bachelor of Fine Arts, and his senior exhibit was the culmination of his work during his time at Snow College as well as the work he has done while at BYU.

The exhibit was immersive, including items that Clawson had brought in from his studio. Due to his process of collaging and his messy work space, he is embarrassed to bring people into his own studio, so he decided to bring some of it to his gallery.

Some of the pieces include his work carts; his stand-up closet complete with shoes, shirts and pants; and even his box of Cheez-Its and a few Bang energy drinks.

“People would say that it is so fun to go into my studio and see what I’ve got going on in there, but I’m so embarrassed because it’s such a mess,” Clawson said. “Bringing the things like the Cheez-Its and energy drinks, it’s just letting them have that immersive experience. It’s a taste of what it is like in my studio.”

While all of his paintings are positioned rather lackadaisically around the gallery, Clawson said his goal was to simply fill the space. He did just that.

He said it feels good to see pieces from different times in his life next to each other on the same wall.

“The chances that somebody comes in here and thinks, ‘I did not see one thing in there I liked,’ it’s possible but there’s so much to look at and choose from,” Clawson said. “You come in here, and it’s not set out for the viewer, but somebody gets to come in and say, ’There’s a lot of paintings in here, and I don’t have enough time to look through them all, so which ones do I like?’ They have to self-select which ones they want to look at and enjoy. Ultimately what I want is for people to be able to leave and say, ‘I’m glad I looked in there.’ ”

For art majors in college, there are always questions that arise prior to graduation. Not every artist is going to be the next Vincent van Gogh, but students have some qualms surrounding what comes next.

Clawson — who said he is grateful for the experiences and diverse, real-world perspectives he received at both BYU and Snow — is adamant he will be a full-time artist.

“It’s been kind of frustrating lately,” Clawson said. “I keep being told that you can’t make it as an artist by the teachers. That’s really been a frustrating thing for me. I just think it’s crazy, a kid goes to art school and says he wants to be an artist, but the teachers tell students you have to have another job, maybe do art on the side.”

On the flip side, he said, when at Snow College, Clawson’s teachers were very supportive of his goal to do art as a full-time job.

For now, Clawson sees himself doing biographical paintings and abstract collages for families or companies with a focus on history and background stories, even family trees.

He believes he has some traction down that path and sees himself doing that in the meantime. The ultimate goal, however, is that he wants to make whatever he wants and sell it after.

When asked why he has been so frustrated with what teachers have been telling him and if that is more of an internal struggle for himself, Clawson was honest.

“Yeah, I struggle because inside of me, it’s scary,” Clawson said. “Being an artist, you don’t have the benefits of a job and what not, so how are you going to provide for a family? There’s my BYU coming into me. Then, I remember all the feelings I’ve had where I just knew that I could make it, I believe, and I have these experiences. There’s my Snow College.”

Clawson did not shy away from the idea of finding a job he enjoys outside of art, but he circled back to art almost immediately.

“I feel like God gave me painting, and I’m going to run with it,” Clawson said. “I’m open to audibles, but I’m trying to stick with it.”