[3] In 1906, she went to the New York School of Art on a scholarship, studying under artists including Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase, and Kenneth Hayes Miller.

[4][3] Clark's activist career began in 1909, when she and 18 other women, including Nora Houston, Ellen Glasgow, Lila Meade Valentine, Kate Waller Barrett, and Mary Johnston,[5] founded the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia; she served as its secretary for one year, and also as a committee chair and head of the group's lobby in the Virginia General Assembly.

The professional space became known as the "Atelier," and its class offerings—including art history, painting, and drawing—fostered the talents of a new generation of artists, including the painter Theresa Pollak.

"[1] Clark also held positions in a number of government and educational bodies, including secretary of Governor E. Lee Trinkle's Commission on the Simplification of State and Local Government and of Governor Harry F. Byrd's Liberal Arts College for Women Commission,[4] and dean of women at the College of William and Mary.

[5] During the New Deal, she was a field supervisor for the National Reemployment Service before becoming, in 1936, the director of the Virginia Arts Project in the Works Progress Administration.

"[13] She met fellow artist Nora Houston at the Art School of Richmond, where she had previously taken classes under Lillie Logan[14] and where she taught after returning to Virginia.