sculptor

Clifton Galleries

The Sculptor

Biography

Patricia Clifton Parks is both an artist and a teacher from western Tennessee. After twelve years as acting head of the art department at Dyersburg State Community College, Parks is now developing a county-wide art program for the Lake County System. She recieved both her Bachelor of Fine Art and Masters from the University of Oklahoma.

Parks' artistic passion is sculpture, although she frequently works in a variety of art forms both two-and-three dimensional. She employs mediums of terracotta, dry stone, limestone, and soapstone. Children, horses, and dogs are often the subjects of her work, which is inspired by her own family and her life-long love of animals, especially horses.

Domination
Patricia Clifton Parks, 2003

Parks has won the prestigious Tennessee Mother Artist Award for her sculptures. Her works have been displayed throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. They are also found in many private collections.

Artist's Statement

In my work I seek to both capture and convey the spirit of the subject with which I am dealing. The determination of a young boy and his first testing as a hind catcher, the rebellion against restriction portrayed in a struggling horse, or the decision of a young girl faced with a pregnancy: each of these presents an opportunity to display the varied challenges and emotions of life.

Terracotta is a classic medium that was used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Etrustians, and Romans. A number of my pieces are in this warm ancient material because it links the art to its past while at the same time allowing for new expression in a new environment. I strive to display the world we live in from a realistic view yet simultaneously give little glimpses of our inner spirit.

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