[1] After graduating, Clarke travelled Europe before settling in New York City where he eventually bought loft in the neighborhood of SoHo and an art studio in Greenwich Village.
[6] David L. Shirley, art critic for The New York Times, praised his works, writing: "One of my favorite artists in the show is John Clem Clarke, who in the last decade has betrayed his own romantic interest in the past by interpreting established masterpieces in a very individual way.
She had previously been his studio assistant and was a sorority sister of Laura Bush, later first lady of the United States.
They divorced in 2003; Jane Clarke remarried in 2008, to Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.
[1] After years of ill-health, he moved into a nursing home in Keizer, Oregon where he died on June 5, 2021, a day before his 84th birthday.