Vernon Davis: “Da Vinci is my guy.”

SANTA CLARA – As Vernon Davis walked away from his group interview I asked him privately who are his favorite painters of all-time? Why did I ask him? Because he was a studio art major at Maryland and he is a painter still.

“Da Vinci, I like Davinci,” he replied with certainty. “But Claude Clark is my No. 1 painter. He’s an African American painter. He’s pretty good. I don’t know if you’ve seen some of his work, but he’s good.”

“What about Picasso?” I asked him.

“Picasso’s OK,” He said. “I think he’s OK. His style is a little different. As far as renaissance art, Da Vinci is my guy. Modern, I’d have to go with Claude Clark.”

I did some research on Claude Clark. He was born in Rockingham, Georgia in 1915. He got his B.A. from Sacramento State in 1958, and his master’s from Cal in 1962.

He taught studio art and art history courses at Merritt College in Oakland from 1968 to 1981. I really like his stuff.

To learn more about Claude Clark and to see some of his paintings, click here.

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