When artist Emery Clark sought to move to the northshore from New Orleans ten years ago, her real estate agent asked her what she was looking for in a house. She replied, “A horizon.” It was not exactly a typical requirement of a homebuyer, but for Emery, whose work draws from a decades-long love affair with nature, it was a necessity. Luckily, she and her family found a wonderful home on Lakeshore Drive in Mandeville, where the view from the second-floor front porch encompasses all of the elements that Emery has courted for decades: water and its fluid current, wind that carries on it the dewy smell of a morning breeze, majestic oaks that capture sunlight to make way for shade shapes, and clouds that stand as backdrop to it all.

Her love of the Louisiana landscape and its expression through art has deep roots. She remembers being fascinated as a child by the interplay between water and light that captured her attention during visits to the northshore with her parents and grandparents. “I remember coming across from New Orleans to visit a fishing camp here with my family, and many of those experiences play a part in my work even today,” she says. Later, at the age of ten or eleven, she recalls being more formally introduced to art. Her cousin, a graduate art student, would bring her curriculum home for the summer and instruct Emery in certain methods.

Truly formal training would come much later; Emery graduated from Newcomb College, Boston University School of Fine Arts, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and Tulane University, where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree. From early on in her career, she was fascinated with art and its integration in culture—specifically, the way that eastern and European cultures create art and architecture with the sole purpose of enhancing environmental harmony. During our interview visit, I was treated to a viewing of slides that display amazing examples of these earlier influences on her work. The images were taken in the early ’70s, when Emery was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Traveling Fellowship, and they capture the harmonious balance of art and environment from her journeys throughout Europe, Greece, the Near East and North Africa.

“I was amazed with those cultures’ large-scale environmental works,” she says. “I loved studying the Islamic culture, in particular, and the way that art and architecture blended seamlessly into the backdrop of the people’s everyday life.”

Her travels directed her interests toward what she calls the “community creative process.” It led her to create some of her most influential work, if influence can be set in relation to the number of people who are exposed to the work. She became an integral contributor to the New Orleans Museum of Art’s 1977 Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibit, where she organized more than 200 volunteers who painted a half-mile-long graphic-color installation of the Nile River on the concrete drive leading to the museum. She was also chosen to work on the New Orleans International Airport Art Plan in the 1990s, which was community collaboration at its finest. Working on that project were architects, visual artists, a physicist, and even musician Ellis Marsalis.

The list of Emery’s works that are held in public collections reads like a “Who’s Who” of businesses: American Express, Coca-Cola Enterprises, IBM, General Mills, MCI, Pan American Life Insurance, Price-Waterhouse, Texas Instruments. But what is most fascinating to me is that none of this is ever brought up during our interview. In fact, Emery didn’t speak of her past work much at all, as her mind, energy, creativity and enthusiasm all seem to be directed so passionately toward her current mission.

It’s the pediatric patients at Ochsner Hospital who’ve captured Emery’s attention. For the past few years, she has dedicated much of her time toward an amazing collaborative project going on there, which aims to promote healing using imagery and the arts.

“The philosophy of this project is based on the promise of hope and dreams that is inherent in nature,” she explains. It is an idea that she had actually been researching for two years prior to receiving the call from Ochsner to participate. “I learned that, through evolution, people have a hard-wired preparedness to be drawn to serene images. And the link between the healing process and the power of art is evidence-based.”

Research has shown that people seek out peaceful imagery during stressful times, such as during an illness. Blood pressure is reduced, fewer minor complications follow and shorter post-operative stays have been documented. Emery’s artwork is used throughout the Ochsner facility to achieve these effects. When visitors drive up to the hospital, they pull under an open-air porte cochère where a 10-foot-high, 43-foot-long wall showcases a scene of what Emery says is “as if one were looking north to the lake on a calm day.” There are even subdued nature sounds piped to the area, setting the stage for the serene environment that waits inside. The theme continues in the hospital’s atrium, where a 33-by-7-foot cloud wall of Emery’s design welcomes visitors. On the wall, projected images of prismatic rainbows and changing quotes fade in and out of focus, delivering messages of hopes, dreams and encouragement.

Emery notes the added benefit of including the children themselves in the creation of artwork that surrounds them. The pediatric patients designed a massive mobile of fish and birds that hangs in the hospital’s atrium. A rotating gallery of their work is displayed throughout the facility, and the large windows of the building that face out to Jefferson Highway are adorned with selections made by the children. Even the exam and hospital rooms display the patients’ creations, alongside some of Emery’s pieces.

“I’ve seen one little boy who wouldn’t get out of his bed at all during his stay here,” remarks Emery. “Then, when he was encouraged to get up and create art, he spent eight straight hours out of his bed! This approach gives the kids a sense of control over their environment, instills competence and definitely promotes healing.”

Planet Kids Preschool recently called upon Emery Clark’s research and talents. Her artwork was used to foster a nurturing environment during the redecoration and new construction of the school’s facilities.
For more information on Emery Clark’s work, call 624-3011.