The Angel Tells Mary
About the Coming Event
1996-1997

BIOGRAPHY

Clarence Antonio Wise was born at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station near Havelock, North Carolina, in 1954. He attended two years of college, planning to major in physical education and business, but dropped out to pursue a romantic affair. When the romance failed, he found work in a boat yard and learned to fabricate boats from fiberglass. As a skilled boat builder, he worked at Hatteras Yacht Company in New Bern, North Carolina, for several years. Then in the early 1980s he moved to Washington, D.C., to take over the partnership of a car wash while supplementing his income by working as a jewelry salesman in his spare time. During a holiday visit to Miami in 1987, Wise was the victim of a drive-by shooting which left him paralyzed below the neck. He spent the next three years in bed and was unable to eat without assistance. Through physical therapy, he has gradually regained partial use of his arms. In 1995, he experienced a vision of the Prophet Moses on the same day that his wife and his mother spontaneously and independently purchased art supplies to provide him with a new pastime. The convergence of their purchases with his vision convinced him that he was meant to take up drawing and painting religious scenes. Wise has done this every day since then, with his brushes and pens clamped in his teeth. He now lives in Durham, North Carolina. This is the first appearance of his work in a museum exhibition.

BOOKS

The End is Near! Roger Manley. Illustrated. Bio.