by Nancy Clark

Still Life in the Playground

I was born in New York City in 1954 and grew up in Woodside, Queens. The playground was across the street, accessible and safe into the night. But the pathos of an empty playground was something I felt early on. I was aware of the power of silence in the empty swings, of the life that had just been there, the shadows left behind. There was a beauty which took my breath away, and I would go home in a state of elevation. My inner world grew more rapidly than my outer world. I needed to express myself, so I started to make things that represented those feelings.