County News
Mr. Clements
Former artist and teacher remembered
He would have recoiled at the formality. But Mr. Clements remains how many of his former students instinctively refer to him—even though for some nearly 50 years has passed since he stood in the classroom before them. Several of those who gathered at his Hillier home on Sunday, said he had been the formative voice that would define the way they think about art and creativity.
Bill Clements passed away in March this year. He had lived a full life as a sculptor and a teacher. Grace, his wife of 74 years, opened up their home to Bill’s former students to allow them to gather and to once more become immersed in his warmth, intelligence and sincerity of through the work he left behind.
Grace Clements with a portrait of her husband Bill.
Bill and Grace moved to small farm on Pleasant Bay more than 40 years ago. Bill set about building his ideal home on the foundation of an old barn across the road from the farmhouse. Part home and part studio, the entire structure is Bill’s creation, now his legacy. Every corner, every nook features his work, his ideas and his imagination.
A former Navy seaman, he scampered up and down from his ground floor studio to the main floor living area and office using a steep ladder. Only within the past few years has that ladder been replaced with a proper staircase.
When former student Marianne Kobus-Matthews descended down these stairs on Sunday to Bill’s industrial-looking studio—his tools, supplies and works-in-progress just as he left them— she says she was instantly transported 46 years back in time. Back to Danforth Tech in 1969 with Mr. Clements guiding the class. He would later become an instructor of fine art sculpture at the Ontario College of Art.
“He was a phenomenal man,” said Kobus- Matthews. “He was so full of joy. He could see joy in the simplest of things. You can see it in his work.”
Many of his sculptures feature rotund, past-their-prime human figures—unclothed—joyously engaged in impish, youthful activity. On a skateboard. Playing leapfrog. With a hula-hoop. On a teeter-totter. Others are simply embraced in dance or posing unselfconsciously to an admiring audience.
“But he had a serious side, too,” said Kobus-Matthews. “He had expectations of his students. He would let you know if he believed you weren’t doing your best work. But he was always encouraging— never hurtful. He was a very compassionate man.”
Their home remains very much as he designed and built it four and half decades ago—as if frozen in time. Every wall, every surface bears his mark and his creation. Bookshelves that line one wall between the large windows overlooking the marsh that consumes the east end of Pleasant Bay, heave under the weight books of poetry, hinting, perhaps, at the inspiration spurring his fertile imagination.
Yes, I remember Bill Clements. I knew his oldest boy, Rick, and daughter, Christine, because we went to the same school, David and Mary Thomson, in Scarborough. They lived on Bellamy Road, in a large house (or so it seemed to me) on a little rise north of Lawrence Avenue. Mr. Clements, as he was to me, had a studio attached to the house with wild, free-forming sculptures on naked figures and welding equipment and a big-windowed bright space. It was not like my home. He was a tall, vital man, full of laughter, like to talk, argue. We debated the merits of the Ottawa Roughriders ( my team!) versus the Ticats. And so (I’ve done the math), I have known Mr. Clements, Rick, Christine, Ted, and Jennie since 1960 –and, that ain’t so long — you can get used to saying things like that. Bill (I can say that now) used to do the butter exhibition at the CNE for years. You can remember that, can’t you. I do. I knew the man who made it.
Tonight, I was prompted to make a call to my mother. I had been reminded by Facebook of the open house my mother had hosted to display her collection of Dad’s sculpture in their home 4 years ago, My father had died about 6 months previously. Living in Western New York, and with the US / Canadian border closed, it’s been months since I have been able to see any of my relatives there but I have tried to keep in touch with Mom by phone, especially since she’s closing in on her 96th birthday and still living independently in that home on Pleasant Bay.
We chatted about that open house event. She mentioned that it had been written up in the local newspaper and that she has a copy of the article. On a whim, I googled the “Wellington Times”. (There are two of them – one in Australia and the other in Ontario). So I clicked on the Ontario link and your website appeared. In the search box I typed “Bill Clements” and instantly, that same article and photos she was describing were displayed on my screen.
Isn’t the technology of today amazing? Thanks.