PRESS
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Letters to Rosie just received an excellent review from the San Francisco Examiner
"Clayton Lewis’ hand-painted envelopes prompt smiles"
By Anita Katz, San Francisco Examiner, July 9, 2015
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Featured story: "Clayton Lewis’s star still rises"
By Samantha Kimmey, Point Reyes Light, May 7, 2015
“An artist and a fisherman, Clayton Lewis was legendary in West Marin. Nationally recognized for his paintings, jewelry and sculpture, he had a local reputation as a raconteur, sea dog, ladies’ man and general wit.”
By Kathleen Goodwin, Point Reyes Visions, January 15, 2002
“The artist Clayton Lewis, who died in 1995, hand-built what may be the quintessential hippie bed, a heroic bohemian masterpiece of wood and paint. It was found in an abandoned Miwok Indian cottage on an obscure cove near Point Reyes, where he lived. What the exhibition implies is how central the bed was to 60's culture. ''It wasn't simply a place to put in your eight hours,'' said the artist's son, Peter, who is leading an effort to preserve the cottages. ''My father loved women -- what can I tell you?''”
Design Notebook; Museum Gives Hippie Stuff The Acid Test
By Patricia Leigh Brown, New York Times, Published: December 16, 1999
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“Clayton Lewis is making a comeback. … Lewis also was a sculptor and a jewelry-maker, and he painted in various media, but his most famous works are his envelopes.”
Marin artist’s career thrives after death
By Dan Fost, Marin Independent Journal, San Rafael, CA\Sunday, October 5, 1997
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“The jewelry was terrific and sensational, says Oakland Museum curator (Phil) Lanhares, who took a trip to Point Reyes last month to look at Lewis’ work. “It was unique. It had lots of great qualities – a spontaneity, a crudeness, a roughness, and a real liveliness.”
Saving Clayton’s Place By Dan Fost, Marin Independent Journal (Feature Story)
December 10, 1995
“The letters became paintings, strange, powerful, and humorous… Clayton never stops being an artist, when he fishes, when he tells a story, when he sculpts wood, creates pieces of jewelry, paints paintings.”
In his own words: “I never began to be an artist. I’ve made things all my life with clay, paper, wood, anything at hand. There isn’t any explanation for it. It’s a disease, a sexual disease. I have a need to make things, that’s all.”
Les Envelopes De Clayton Lewis By Catherine David,
Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, France
June 29, 1984
Translated from French
“ I enjoyed Clayton’s robust humor, listened to his ideas and opinions and found him to be a remarkable person—high spirited, unafraid, independent. There is a gusto about him, an exuberance which complements his appearance: hands brawny, features weathered and worn, gray beard thick, blue eyes smiling… I had come to meet him with his friend, Richard Kirschman who had told me of Clayton’s rustic life, his work as a sculptor and artist and, most intriguing, his envelope paintings.”
The World of Clayton Lewis
By J.S. Holiday, Magazine of the California Historical Society, San Francisco, CA (Feature Story), Fall, 1983