Stephen J. Clarke was born 1970, in County Durham. Largely self-taught, his art arises from a childhood fascination with myths and monsters. His work engages in various methods of automatism, which he sees as being analogous to the ideas and dynamics of alchemy and the notion of scrying into the Unconscious. Drawings, poetry and prose have been published in several international surrealist journals including Manticore, Phosphor (Leeds), Analogon (Prague), S.U.R.R (Paris) and Salamandra (Mardrid). Surrealist Editions published a collection of his poetry The Bridge of Shadows in 2007.