UNTAPPED TALENT: CLINT KING

MAKING ART IS AN EXPERIMENT. SOMETIMES IT LEADS TO MASTERPIECES, SOMETIMES IT LEADS TO SEEING BLUE DOTS. CLINT KING HAS BEEN DOWN BOTH OF THOSE ROADS. AND NOW HE'S PREPARING FOR HIS FIRST OHIO ART LEAGUE GALLERY EXHIBITION, WHICH OUR VERY OWN NEOGEO THE PROPHET LEARNED ABOUT IN THE FOLLOWING CONVERSATION.
neogeo: What did you do last night?
Clint: I tried to go to sleep, but when I finally realized I wasn't really sleeping, the sun was already up. So I looked up plastic magnifying sheets on a Taiwanese website.
n: What are plastic magnifying sheets and why are they in Taiwan?
C: I don't know, but from about ten feet away they look pretty cool. Especially when you put a dried squid and a piece of holographic paper behind them.
n: So is that how it all happens? Was that a little peek into the creative mind of Clint King?
C: I don't know. That's a strange question. I get too caught up in things sometimes. I'm usually just being goofy, but sometimes it seems to work out. Sometimes I'm the only one that gets it.
n: So you're thinking about plastic things and then what? What else happened? Tell me a story.
C: I almost blew my house up last Monday.
n: Let me guess. You were trying to build your own hydroponics system in the basement and it all went awry.
C: No. I was mixing some stuff in the basement-- stuff I wasn't supposed to throw together-- but I did it on purpose... sort of. And it made some kind of gas.
n: Well, that might not be too bad. It could cover up the smell of the cat box you have down there.
C: Yeah. I was worried that the strange lighter fluid smell was mixing with the ammonia of the month-old litter box, and was creating something that my pilot light was going to ignite. But then again, I could have been imagining all this because I was starting to feel woozy.
n: So this stuff you were mixing, it was for a painting?
C: Yeah. I was working on a painting and all these bubbles appeared. Then the smell surfaced. Then the smoke alarm started going off. So I freaked out and got my neighbor. He thought I should call the fire department. So I did. I grabbed my cat out of the house and put him in my car. By that time I was seeing blue dots.
n: So the cat is in the car on a hot day and the fire department shows up. What did they do? Did they rescue the cat in the car or did they spray water into your basement?
C: Well, the cat was panting and the blue dots were starting to turn pink. I was having a hard time understanding what the fireman was saying because there was a giant fan sucking fumes through the windows they kicked out. Then he said something about me not acting like someone who was in good health. He said to me, "You ain't acting right, boy."
n: So your house is fine, right? I mean, it didn't blow up, did it?
C: No. It didn't.
n: So what do you have in the works now?
C: Well I'm trying to make a show with no money, no job, no transportation and a guy with a broken arm.
n: What is the show going to consist of? Your paintings or something else?
C: It's something totally different: a site-specific sculpture that includes sound, time, and machines. Another artist named Justin Blair and I are working on a series of small sound machines that will hopefully work and get our ideas across successfully. The show is titled for the time (being). It's about the experience of "now," the temporary nature of sound and the creative process. It's going to start at the Ohio Art League Gallery August 4th and run through the end of the month.
n: That’s so rad.
C: Did you just say "rad"?
n: Yeah. Guess I did.
C: This conversation is over.


CONTACT CLINT HERE.