Clyde A. Wray
“Every writer wants to be good,
but I want to be read."

How did your artistry grow?
My artistry grew out of great anger and frustration and then I wouldn't call it artistry. It came out of illness, hurt and pain and a feeling of helplessness. It came out of a simple act of kindness. It came because someone said to me "why don't you keep doing it."

What influences were there along the way?
My greatest influences I suppose is the journey I've been embarked on since drawing my first breath. The many stops along the way and the people I've met.

I've been employed in may different occupations and each has left it mark somewhere in my body. Every shoe that I shined when I worked in my grandfather's Barber shop.

Every causality that I ever helped as an emergency tech. Every criminal whose path I crossed when working in a law enforcement agency. Every net I ever pulled in on a shrimp boat, ever bottle of hair dressing put up on a shelf and taken down before I finished the shelf. Every floor mopped and walked on because the patrons couldn't walk around, every college professor that ever asked me, "what was the author thinking when he/or she wrote this or that?" as if I was in the same room with the author. All of those life's experiences were my greatest influences.

Are there other influences?
Having children comes in a close first to a life changing ultimate experience.
With them it’s the inexplicable, never knowing from one moment to the next and always hoping that the next isn't a disaster, a fall, a broken arm, an illness. Is there a disaster list for children? What to be on the look out for.

What inspired your recent show?
By far and away serving in the service and serving in Vietnam. No matter how far one may roam. No matter how fast one may run if you've served in a war, if you've seen combat you'll never run away from that dark cloud. Because at a very young age you would have learned how base man can become.

What inspired your recent book?
All of the above.

(Portrait Photo by Ann Quigley)