Jul 9, 2019
If you know him now, you'd describe him as a quintessential hippy artist; but Chip Clawson was six when he connected deeply with the story his mother read to him, The Sands of Iwo Jima. It was at that tender young age that he decided he'd one day be a marine - a hero.
Throughout high school and college, he followed the path his parents expected of him, while telling them and his uncles that what he really wanted was to join the Marines.
His uncles, Army and Navy, told him he should pick a different branch - the Marines were the toughest, and Chip was small and wiry, no taller than 5'6". But Chip eventually enlisted with the Marines and tested into the flight program; he was going to be a pilot.
Chip's is a story of resilience, grit, and self-reflection that took him from a mindset of heroics in war to a mindset of heroics in peace. His pivot points, those moments in time that changed everything about who he thought he was, and how he saw his role in the world, pointed him in many different directions. The piece that always remained was his determination to follow his heart.
To learn more about Chip and his art, visit his artist index and check out an article about his recent sculpture creations.