A window into Florida's past
Posted: April 25, 2015 - 10:31pm
By LAURA HAMPTON
laura.hampton@staugustine.com
On any given day, a walk down St. George Street can lead to the discovery of many historical facts, figures and legends. Lately, though, this has become even more true.
As a mission of passion and compassion, local artist Warren Clark has created 45 historic illustrations in celebration of St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary. The illustrations, made into posters, hang in the windows of businesses and retail shops throughout St. Johns County.
Simple and effective, Clark’s illustrations feature colorful, cartoon-like drawings and short, engaging text to capture compelling stories in St. Augustine’s history.
“His style is reminiscent of the old Ripley’s Believe it or Not! cartoons back in the ’50s and ’60s,” said Joel Bagnal, owner of Joel Bagnal’s Goldsmith shop on Aviles Street. “I’m just very impressed with his work.”
Clark has been developing his style for a long time. Though there were no formal art classes at Loretto Elementary School in Mandarin, Clark and other students found a way to make art.
“A bunch of us were always drawing in class,” Clark said. “Then we went our different directions.”
Though Clark was an art major in college, his career was in the ministry. After serving as a pastor in Argentina and Peru, he found himself back in Florida 20 years ago.
As he explored the region, he came across treasures on the beach — artifacts and pieces of pottery. As fascinating as those pieces of history were, Clark discovered the true treasure was the story. He began to hatch a plan.
“How could I communicate those to people who could care less about history?” Clark wondered. “What I hit on was cartoons.”
With the help of a partner, Bob Lewis, he created Lewis and Clark Explorations. The cartoons ran in 50 newspapers around the state in the early 1990s.
Those historic cartoons provided a foundation for Clark’s recent project. Upon retirement four years ago, he visited with representatives from the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau. They liked what they saw.
“We knew from the beginning that the work Warren Clark was doing was a new way to tell the stories of Florida’s Historic Coast,” said Rick Hensler, director of Promotions and Strategic Alliances at the VCB. “We were proud to help Warren get started by commissioning 10 illustrations a year since 2012.”
Each year since 2012, Clark has added to his collection of historical illustrations. Working with the VCB, he focused on important anniversaries in the region — 200 years since the Spanish Constitution of 1812, 500 years of La Florida, 50 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and St. Augustine’s 450th.
As with any large-scale endeavor, however, help comes from many sources. In addition to the VCB, Clark credits Compassionate St. Augustine with helping him achieve his goal of sharing the history of St. Augustine with as many people as possible. When he asked for volunteers to help him distribute the posters, the folks from Compassionate St. Augustine and others responded.
“I had about 20 people taking these out, and now they’re from the World Gold Village down to Matanzas Inlet,” Clark said. “They’re all over the place.”
Clark also enlisted the aid of historians to fact-check his work.
“The Historical Society has saved me a bunch of times from making big historical errors,” Clark said.
Though Clark intended to give locals a deep sense of appreciation for the region and its history, his work has expanded to an international audience.
“The city of St. Augustine presented the city of Aviles, Spain, with a set of six illustrated tiles in Spanish when we became the first Compassionate Sister Cities in the world,” Hensler said.
That Spain should be included in Clark’s project is fitting, since the four pillars of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 are incorporated into a message prominently displayed on each poster:
“Learning from our past. Lifting up a vision for our future: Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights, Compassion”
To request a poster for public viewing in an office or place of business, email rwc904@gmail.com or go to warrenclarkhistory@etsy.com.
1 comment:
This is the cult like Compassionate Mepublican cleaned up menticide version of our history.
You know, the folks that want to spread those look like a KKK hat obelisks all over the city.
The entire series is testimony to the power of let's pretend Crumbunism to co-opt the arts for promoting a disingenuous future vision of; "Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights, & Compassion", a future vision that in reality emanates from a base of Feedom, Demonocracy, Inhuman Rights & Commandeering.
Sheesh — the things a poor artist has to do to make a few crumbs today.
The failing of the series, beyond its softball portrayal of events, is in its omission of the current history of Jim Crow usurpation of the rule of law by a murderous gangster cabal that is still in control. If the Compassionate Mepublicans were genuine in their quest for more positive social goals they would focus on the gross violation of Civil Rights taking place in the city every day, right now!
If you want that real history you can get it in a semi comic book form here...
http://saintaugdog.com/sadissues/issue1/1visualindex.html
Or, in the "Truth or Baloney?" format, here...
http://fountainofbaloney.com/truthorbaloney/truthorbaloney.html
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