Teen’s artwork of Maine landmark draws raves

YORK, Maine — A rose laid in entrance of the Nubble Lighthouse — to 16-year-old Owen Clark — represents life and demise, in addition to the tip of affection.

Now, Clark’s drawing might be on the market on the Nubble Lighthouse present store and Whispering Sands present store this summer season. It garnered consideration after showing final yr on the quilt of his father’s kids’s e-book, “The Nubble Lighthouse is Particular to Me As a result of.” Clark has since offered quite a few prints on-line and is happy to see the drawing go to retail retailer cabinets, signifying development in his younger profession as an illustrator.

“I’m feeling excited, and I can’t wait to see what occurs,” Clark mentioned. 

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His father, Jody Clark, mentioned he was keen to offer his son a platform by his books, for which he has spent a number of years constructing a following on-line. The daddy-son duo launched their first kids’s e-book “York Seaside Via the Eyes of a Little one” two years in the past.

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Expressing himself by artwork 

Clark has been drawing since he may stroll, he says, and over time has gotten into making music, writing and movie work. He additionally posted a brief movie this week known as “Dying’s Library” on YouTube, based mostly on a brief story he had beforehand printed within the journal “Epoch.” He created the music and edited the movie himself.

At school, the place many youngsters are taken with sports activities, he mentioned he finds his id in his artwork. He has been outspoken about bullying, having posted an open letter on Fb to classmates about how merciless phrases and ostracizing drove him to ponder suicide. The letter went viral, and Clark was interviewed on Maine’s NBC affiliate Information Heart Maine.

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Clark mentioned his art work has helped him uncover his personal braveness and empowerment.

“I’m actually within the nook of the classroom specializing in drawing,” Clark mentioned. “I really feel like my artwork positively displays how I’m feeling, or what I’m impressed by at the moment.”

The that means behind the rose 

Roses just like the one in his drawing are a central a part of Clark’s inventive id. He hides roses in a lot of his drawings, and he additionally decorates his room with roses.

“It’s the sweetness in them,” Clark mentioned. “They’re delicate, however additionally they have thorns.”

Clark’s drawing of the Nubble was initially a photograph he took. He added the rose when he made the illustration. 

When his father’s e-book that includes the drawing was launched, his father mentioned he obtained requests for prints of the drawing. The rose, he mentioned, appeared central to individuals’s curiosity. Many equated it with the reminiscence of their late family members.

“So many individuals reached out to me about his drawing, they usually had their very own tales. ‘That jogs my memory of my grandmother’s ashes up on the Nubble, we at all times come up and lay a rose,’” Clark’s father mentioned. “That’s after they began asking me, ‘Would you promote prints of that drawing?’”

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The variety of requests added up till this yr after they determined it was time to promote the drawing on-line. They’ve since added canvas by request, and lately offered 4 canvas items for $200 to at least one purchaser. Orders have been positioned with the Nubble Lighthouse present store in addition to Whispering Sands at York Seaside.

Clark’s father Jody mentioned it isn’t simple to seek out an authentic tackle the Nubble given how ubiquitous it’s in native art work.

“There’s 1,000,000 drawings of the Nubble,” Jody Clark mentioned. He’s impressed by his son’s ambition and expertise and appears ahead to seeing the place it takes him.

“Whether or not it’s his drawing, his music, no matter he’s doing, the quantity of those that see it and have commented,” Jody Clark mentioned, “it’s fairly mind-blowing.”