Art Review: Clay Feeley by Evan Pierce Blumer

    Clay Feeley’s piece ‘Decay’ is a piece made in August 2024 on the software Procreate. In ‘Decay’, we can see someone sitting at their desk with a pencil or pen in their hands, drawing on their tablet. The location, with posters on the wall and lights on the ceiling, can be easily interpreted as the subject’s room. It’s a place of solitude and safety for the subject as they can create. However, what’s really interesting in this piece is two things- the colors (or lack of) and the expression on the subject’s face. The piece is done in a monochrome manner, with only blacks, whites, and grays as the palette. The subject, sitting with their legs close to their chest and drawing on a tablet, looks very tired and very disillusioned with what they’re doing. As a result, ‘Decay’ feels very drained of color, both figuratively and literally.

This piece feels very much like a love lost to burnout. A spark has gone out, and the significant has simply become redundant. The title itself, ‘Decay’, seems to really be playing on this theme. The love of creating has decayed, and now the subject is stuck creating solely out of obligation, whether that’s to themself or to others. There is simply no more personal incentive to create anymore. The happiness that came from making art for yourself is truly gone, and all that’s left is just the routine.

’Decay’ really hits me personally as I can relate to art-related burnout and depression. The expression on the subject’s face as they sit at their desk alone, surrounded by nothing but reminders of when they were happier and more excited to actually create, truly reminds me of whenever I myself experience severe burnout and depression episodes from said burnout. It' s a really deep and sinking feeling once you start to feel it, one that can almost be impossible to even find the motivation to climb out of. 

Feeley’s ‘Decay ' is absolutely art. It’s full of effort and soul, a piece that you can really feel the artist bleed onto their canvas of choice. ‘Decay’ is filled with such internal pain, and Feeley does a really great way of composing that into an external piece of art or others to connect to. Everything in this piece really comes together very well to make this emotionally impactful, from the colors to the surroundings to the posture and expression of the subject. You can truly feel the wanting in this piece- the wanting to feel joy again, the wanting to actually enjoy what you’re doing everyday instead of simply treating it like an obligation. Feeley’s ‘Decay’, to me, is beautiful.