Amy Clark: from rap beats to art tweets

Nadine MelamedStaff WriterThe words “God is dope, yo” or “Fresh mode is my dress code.”  They don’t exactly yell “art.” But art is about finding the beauty in even the most obscure or unexpected places.When senior Amy Clark read these daft comments on Kanye West’s Twitter feed, she didn’t just brush past them. Instead, she used them as inspiration for her new, creative artwork.After moving from England to Los Angeles in sixth grade, Amy Clark soon discovered one of her life’s greatest pleasures: art. She claims that art became a way for her to express her identity and to say things words couldn’t accurately describe.“I wouldn’t be anything ... if I didn’t have art in my life,” Clark said.To the average person, art and Kanye West don’t exactly mesh. In fact, most of us remember West for introducing those lensless neon glasses or for stealing the microphone from Taylor Swift at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards.“The stuff he says may be a little silly, but I find it really interesting that he’s so unafraid to break down the wall there used to be between celebrities and the public eye ... he’s symbolic of the new age of celebrities and the idea of how they’re really more tangible,” Clark said.Hoping to follow in West’s footsteps and break  down barriers, Clark began her semester-long project —a series of pieces, each based on a different West tweet — as a quest to fulfill her required 12 art pieces for her AP Studio Art class. The inspiration, she says, came from seeing cartoons in the New Yorker’s online edition which quoted West’s tweets.Clark’s artwork displays many types of themes, colors and styles, and utilizes different mediums, such as paint, watercolors. Many of her paintings feature exotic-looking people and text drawn in obscure fonts.“What I really wanted to do was to make art out of something that wouldn’t usually be considered art,” Clark said. “I always write down quotes I like, because most of my art involves text.”What’s considered art to one may be considered mundane to another; people just can’t agree. Though this is the truth in the art world, Amy’s artist peers continue to praise her work.“Amy’s such a sweet and talented girl. Her Kanye West art is definitely very catchy and nicely thought and drawn out,” senior and fellow AP Studio Art student Lily Jacobius said.Clark’s Kanye West tweets art have succeeded in finding the perfect balance between creativity, art and modernity.“I don’t try and find any deeper meaning in the tweets, I just want to have fun and express my own interpretation of what is being said,” Clark said humbly.As the years go by and people’s tastes change, no one work will remain in constant thought. Amy’s interpretational art serves as a time capsule for today’s youth.nmelamed@thesamohi.com