Clark Art Talks
Clark College’s Artist & Scholar Lecture Series
Upcoming Art Talks:
This Clark College Artist and Scholarly Lecture Series invites professional artists to speak to our community about their practice. This gives our students, faculty, and staff unique insight into how each artist creates artwork and makes a living within contemporary society, in turn pushing back on the ‘starving artist’ stereotype. These lectures also present a variety of scholarly journeys to inspire students. All of these events are free and anyone may attend (unless otherwise noted).
Artist Talk: Roger Allen Cleaves
October 22, 2026, 11am - 12 noon
Location: PUB 161
Roger Allan Cleaves was born in Memphis, TN where he currently lives and works. He received his Bachelors of Fine Art at the University of Memphis. During his tenure at the University of Memphis he was one of fifteen undergraduate students selected from across the country to participate in the Yale Norfolk Summer program for the arts. Cleaves went on to study at the University of Wisconsin- Madison where he received his MFA.
Cleaves latest works feature a self-written fictional story titled The Land of the Forget Me Nots. The story investigates social themes, fantasy, and epic adventures through the lens of Afrofuturism. Symbolism, abstract figuration, and distortion are a few of the tools he uses in his creative process. Often times Cleaves uses motifs from Modernism that have been borrowed from African cultures to explore the complex relationship between black artist and the contemporary art institution. The different bodies of work are generally moments from the storyline that concentrate on the characters interactions inside the created world. The created world - Forget Me Nots Land- is a multiverse and an amalgamation of sociological ideas fused with contemporary storytelling. Roger will be visiting Clark College from Memphis, TN.
https://www.rogerallancleaves.com/
Artist Talk: Orlando Almanza
October 26, 2026, 2 - 3pm
Location: PUB 161
Orlando Almanza (b.1989, Las Tunas, Cuba) pulls us into his dreamworld of memory, myth and loss with ethereal landscapes, portraits and storytelling. His stories take place in the natural world where figures are intertwined with plants, animals and light. The interconnectedness of his work points to the artist's deep dedication to nature, and the unique way it connects with myths and storytelling across cultures. Each painting invites us in, to search for meaning and truth. Almanza received his B.A. in printmaking from the Institute of Superior Arts in Havana, Cuba.
https://www.orlandoalmanza.com/
Artist Talk: Laura Ross Paul
November 3, 2026, 11am - 12noon
Location: PUB 161
Laura Ross-Paul has been painting professionally for over four decades. During that time she has been represented by nine West-Coast rallies from Seattle to LA, with solo exhibits at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon, The Column Gallery, Colorado College, Colorado: The Art Gym, Portland, Oregon; and important exhibits at the Arnot Museum, Elmira, New York; Palm Springs Art Museum,; Seattle Art Museum; Tacoma Art; the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (Eugene), The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (Portland), and The Schnitzer Family Collection.
Among her many awards, Ross-Paul has received the Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship, an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship, and the Susan Cooley Gilliom Artist and Teaching Residency in Roseville, California. Her art has been singled out for prizes in regional biennials at the Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museums, and Turtle Bay Museum in Redding, California; featured in the cable TV film Spy (1989); and appears on book covers including fiction by Charles Spaeth (2011) and Barbara Wilson (1993) and poetry by Judith Barrington (2015).
Artist Talk: Diego Mancilla
November 5, 2026, 11am - 12noon
Location: PUB 161
"Born in Mexico City, raised in Portland, Oregon —I'm a creative spirit. From the moment I drew on MacPaint in 1998 all I wanted to do was design. Today, I focus on working with companies and individuals to create design solutions through the use of typography, layout, color mashups and a splash of creativity.
I'm a Digital and Graphic Designer."
Artist Talk: Palmarin Merges
November 16, 2026, 11am - 12noon
Location: PUB 161
Artist Talk: Palmarin Merges
Palmarin Merges is a Filipina American artist whose work draws from the desire to become more sustainable by re-using materials close at hand and by adapting restriction as a generative force for creation. Trained as a Printmaker, she now works primarily in mixed media, especially household waste - plastic, cardboard, etc. These common materials taken from the fabric of her daily life are processed and then transformed into pattern, collage and concrete poetry.
Raised in Hawaii and California, she left Oregon in Dec. 2019 with her husband to return to Japan, this time to Tokyo. Her adventures now include exploring a variety of traditional crafts and wandering the areas in and around the Yamanote Line.
Palmarin Merges holds an MFA Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute and has exhibited in Japan, the Philippines, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. She has previously taught Relief, Screenprint and drawing at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Marylhurst University and Pacific University.
https://www.palmarinmerges.com/