{"id":2123,"date":"2016-06-06T10:21:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T10:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=2123"},"modified":"2016-06-19T11:32:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T11:32:47","slug":"dark-arts-dark-lives-the-world-of-alan-m-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/dark-arts-dark-lives-the-world-of-alan-m-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Arts, Dark Lives: The World of Alan M Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/em>I like knowing what we were as human beings, what we\u2019ve been. It gives me some indication of where we\u2019re going and why.\u201d<\/em> Weird art, horrors from history, the relevance of Jack the Ripper and much more today in our exclusive interview with Alan M Clark<\/strong><\/span>. Alan is an artist of long standing who has garnered many awards and nominations for his illustrations. In recent years he has also gained a strong following for his disturbing fiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"keys<\/a>
keys of the king<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A resident of Oregon, he has illustrated books and stories by authors as diverse as Jack Ketchum, Poppy Z Brite, Stephen King, Joe R Lansdale<\/strong> and Ray Bradbury<\/strong>. His most recent fiction release was The Surgeon’s Mate: A Dismemoir<\/em>, an unsettling work which combines genuine autobiography with Victorian horror. Let’s hear all about him…<\/p>\n

Please note that as with a number of our guests, Alan is a professional artist, and his work is copyright. For those who are interested, a .pdf is given at the end of the article, citing where the art first appeared, etc.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"controlled<\/a>
controlled accident auto portrait<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

greydog:<\/strong><\/em> Welcome to greydogtales<\/em>, Alan. As you’re both an artist and a writer, we ought to try and do justice to both sides of your creative output. Let’s start, as you did, with the art and amble along to the writing later, if that’s OK?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> Thanks. Yes, I am a story-teller on both fronts, and they require similar techniques to engage an audience.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

On Art<\/h3>\n

greydog:<\/strong> <\/em>You have more than thirty years professional experience, both in producing original works of art and in illustrating other people’s fiction. Did you intend to make this your main career when you started out?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> As a teen in the 1970s, looking into the future of college and work, I had little hope of doing what I wanted for a living. What I wanted to pursue was creative endeavor\u2014visual art, writing, film, acting\u2014at some level, yet I didn’t expect to succeed in making a career of it. Luckily, I had parents who payed for my college education. I was best at visual art and disdained the commercial, so I chose a fine arts college, the San Francisco Art Institute, and got a BFA in painting, with a minor in sculpture. Without hope of making fine arts career, I saw the experience of college as good practice for what interested me, but felt as though it was merely four more years I wouldn’t have to work in a plant, a factory, in retail, or food service.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

\"thistledown<\/a>
thistledown precinct<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After college, I had a few forgettable jobs, got married, and continued to produce artwork in my spare time. I tried to get my paintings, drawings and sculptures into galleries, and quickly realized I didn’t like the fine arts scene. Being an avid reader of fiction, loving many of the cover paintings on the books I read, being a writer and story-teller at heart, and, finally, meeting people involved in the publishing industry, I decided to give illustration a try. Turned out I was pretty good at the business end. With persistence, I got work.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"aequis\"<\/a>
aequis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

greydog:<\/strong> <\/em>You’ve won many awards for your artwork, including the World Fantasy Award (1994), and have done an enormous number of book covers. Did you find the cover work satisfying, or was it basically about earning a wage?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> I\u2019ve truly enjoyed my career in illustration. Before I became an illustrator, I could not have dreamed of all that I\u2019ve accomplished, much of it in collaboration with others in the industry, the writing I\u2019ve had the good fortune to enhance visually, the editors and writers I\u2019ve met and befriended, the weird and wonderful that I discovered within my own imagination, the trust given me as I took artistic risks that I could only hope would pay off.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"jupiter<\/a>
jupiter station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

greydog:<\/strong><\/em> There are some fantastic pieces of original art in your portfolio, ranging from quiet and suggestive to out-and-out bizarre. Do you have an artistic comfort zone, or is it all about exploring?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> When I get a job, I always establish in my mind some idea I\u2019m comfortable with, something to fall back on for the job, something I know I can do well and that would please the publisher. Yet I am not satisfied unless I am growing, trying new things. I push myself to reach for the new and different, things that will test and stretch my skills.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Exploration is key. I want plenty of discovery in my visual art, as well as in my writing. I have various techniques that promote that, and I maintain a work situation that has distraction built into it. That helps me avoid the echo chamber in my head that comes from concentrating too intently on the work at hand. I try to take avenues into the work that allow for the element of chance.<\/span> That\u2019s a bit hard to pin down with words, but I suppose a good way to describe the state of mind I want to achieve while working is one of free association.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"biology<\/a>
biology of viruses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

greydog:<\/strong> <\/em>We regularly feature artists on the site <\/span>\u2013 some are long-timers, others developing their careers. How has the art scene changed since you got involved? Do you think it’s easier or harder now to make your mark?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> If you\u2019re talking about book and magazine illustration, there are a lot more opportunities than when I started out, but publishers want to pay little to artists to produce artwork. With less pay involved, it\u2019s difficult to devote all ones energies to a career in illustration, and nearly all those I know in the business have other jobs as well. I\u2019d say it\u2019s more difficult to make your mark today.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"bonny<\/a>
bonny and boney pirate wenches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Writing<\/h3>\n

greydog:<\/strong><\/em> OK, we should move on. What would you say triggered the move to write your own books?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> I\u2019ve written ever since I was a teenager, especially short fiction. For the longest time, though, just as with the artwork, I didn\u2019t assume there would be enough interest in what I did to make a go of it. My first four published novels were collaborations with other writers, <\/span><\/em>Siren Promised<\/span>, with <\/span><\/em>Jeremy Robert Johnson<\/span>, <\/span><\/em>The Blood of Father Time<\/span> duology with <\/span><\/em>Stephen C. Merritt<\/span> and <\/span><\/em>Lorelei Shannon<\/span>, and <\/span><\/em>D.D. Murphry, Secret Policeman<\/span> with <\/span><\/em>Elizabeth Massie<\/span>. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Cameron Pierce<\/span>, editor for the Eraserhead Press imprint, Lazy Fascist Press, asked me for a novel, and that broke my assumption. The novel I wrote for him, <\/span><\/em>Of Thimble and Threat<\/span>, was the first volume in what became my Jack the Ripper Victims series, and truly inspired me to devote my writing energies to what I call Historical Terror: Horror that Happened, basically a line of dark historical fiction.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"in<\/a>
in the night in the dark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

greydog:<\/strong><\/em> Your recent novel The Surgeon’s Mate: A Dismemoir<\/em> is an unusual book. We’ve just completed it, and found it fascinating. You present both a harrowing personal memoir and a portrait of a deeply disturbed fictional character. People often say that writing about one’s own difficulties is cathartic. Did you find that the case here?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> Thank you.<\/span> Yes, I did, but then the difficulties I wrote about, surviving brain abscesses and alcohol and drug addiction are ones I dealt with over twenty years ago, so I\u2019ve had plenty of time to get stuff off my chest with family and friends. The novel was in some ways an effort to pull back from my life and get a bit of perspective. Along with viewing it from a different angle, as well as contrasting my life with that of a character who embodied chilling cruelty and horror, came gratitude for what I have had, for what I have. Strangely, the experience of writing it also gave me hope for the future.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

greydog:<\/strong><\/em> Was the idea of the surgeon’s mate character, Frederick, born during your periods of disorientation and hallucination, or did he come along later to be used as a counterfoil to your own experiences?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> As awful as it may seem, the character of Frederick truly was born in hallucinations I had during seizures, a result of brain abscesses in the right temporal lobe of my brain. The hallucinations that come with seizures of that type, because of their location in the brain, are highly emotional. Mine were full of an intense dread and came with visuals, smells, and sounds that though vivid, were too bizarre to describe, like a dream too weird to remember after awakening. Of course, I would not name the figure that came to me in the visions until twenty-six years later, when I wrote <\/em>The Surgeon\u2019s Mate: A Dismemoir.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Most of what I knew of Frederick at the time of my illness and hospital stay was only feeling, impressions of an individual who wasn\u2019t or at least shouldn\u2019t have been real. He did feel real, even though I quickly came to assume he was purely hallucinatory. The dread that went with the hallucinations gave him an aspect of being broken, abused, and of being malevolent. He wanted to abuse<\/span>. The \u201cfeeling\u201d I had of him stuck with me, and I gave his personality to a 19th century serial killer I wanted to write about, a contemporary of Jack the Ripper. That said, somehow he and the hallucinations had suggested to my imagination that they emerged from that time period, the late Victorian era. The idea for the character in the novel emerged from the complex feelings associated with the seizure hallucinations. These are complex things to talk about in a short interview. Suffice it to say that the human brain is just plain weird and wonderful, a conjuror capable of the wildest flights.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"the<\/a>
the bunhill ghost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

greydog:<\/strong><\/em> A Dismemoir<\/em> also raises the subject of Jack the Ripper, something relevant to your on-going series of books on victims of the man. This series is another unusual take <\/span>\u2013 what inspired it?<\/span><\/p>\n

alan:<\/strong> Reading the police reports about the murders and finding a list of the possession Catherine Eddowes had on her person at the crime scene. That list humanized her for me for the first time. She\u2019d stayed the two nights prior to that of her death in the casual ward of the workhouse. That was an outdoor segment of the facility for those who needed a place to sleep but either didn\u2019t want to enter the workhouse proper or were unwelcome, such as those who arrived clearly ill or criminals known to the workhouse staff.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Catherine Eddowes had over fifty items with her. She wore several layers of clothing and had numerous pocket-like bags, no doubt worn hidden beneath her top skirt, which held her possessions, most likely everything she owned. The list was pitiful and spoke of one who survived day to day with very little. Clearly, she valued even the incomplete sets among her items, such as the single red mitten, and broken items, such as the partial pair of spectacles. I envisioned a novel that demonstrated the incidental acquisition of the possessions over the course of her lifetime in the midst of telling the story. That became the first novel in the Jack the Ripper Victims Series,<\/em> Of Thimble and Threat. Here\u2019s the list, omitting only her numerous garments:<\/span><\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n