As a result, Clarke found herself unable to attend college after graduating from high school in 1959, despite the theater scholarship she received from Stivers High School.
“I had the scholarship, but no money for room and board, so I had to turn it down,” said Clarke, who went on to marry and raise two children. “I eventually studied in the liberal arts program at Wright State University and owned a hair salon in Huber Heights.”
Clarke also divorced in 1968, remarried and then divorced again in 1989. In addition to owning a hair salon, she also was a substitute teacher in the Dayton City Schools.
It was in 2002 that she finally stepped into an art class at Sinclair Community College and discovered that she enjoyed and was gifted at art. In addition to drawing and painting, she also learned to work with mixed media in her classes.
In 2012 she decided to make her peace collage after finding some 1945 newspapers that her mother had saved in the basement of her Dayton home.
“The pain doesn’t stop from the soldiers,” said Clarke. “It twists your mind and it twists the family…if only we could have peace. With the war about to end overseas and the soldiers returning home, I wanted to make something to bring families closer together. We never know at any moment what will happen in the future.”
Using yellowed newspapers proclaiming “War is Over,” in big black letters as a background, Clarke created a collage using poems and iconic photos like the soldier kissing the nurse in Times Square along with photos of her uncles, the four Murphy brothers, who all served as soldiers and returned from World War II and her grandson, Christopher.
“The collage with ‘War is Over’ on it, fit perfectly between our large calendars that have squares decorated by the families of soldiers,” said Gabriela Pickett, artist and curator of the non-profit Missing Peace Art Space Gallery & Studio. “It brings hope to the fact that war does come to an end. It’s a nice way to welcome the end to the war.”
The collage will be displayed through June 7 on Saturdays and Sundays from 2-4 p.m. or by appointment.
For more information, go to www.missingpeaceart.org
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