2024.41.284

CLYDE BALL: HOME, LIFE WITH BELVA, AND ART 9/2009 The white frame Ball Home and Studio on Allegan St., surrounded by large shade trees, has a look of weathered distinction from the road. The surrounding gardens, appearing once organized, have succumbed to goldenrod and a natural look. The large studio at the back of the property speaks of several renovations and use as both an exhibit gallery and work place. The back door of the house, which serves as the front door serving the car parking area, sits in a pleasant patio filled with several metal sculptures. Clyde Ball, who was living in the house with his son, Jeff, led me on a tour of the premises. Belva, Clydeʼs spouse and creative art partner, was presently in a nursing home following a severe stroke. We began with a tour in the studio to see examples of the paintings and metal and other material sculptures of both Clyde and Belva, followed by a tour of the house and subsequently several hours of a video recorded interview. Gary, Indiana, is Clydeʼs 11/3/29 birthplace. His biological father was Edwin Ball a Hammond lathing contractor and “socialist”. His mother was Harriet Spohn. Clydeʼs parents divorced in the early 1930s and Harriet remarried Michael Gust a steel worker. Clyde eventually was raised in Hammond, Indiana, by his maternal grandfather, A. L. Spohn, the popular principal of the Hammond High School, and his second wife, Frieda Kurtz who seems to have been especially attentive to Clyde. Attending the high school run by his grandfather was somewhat awkward. After becoming depressed over the loss of a special girlfriend in his freshman year, Clyde was sent to Greenbriar Academy a military school in West Virginia where he reluctantly played football and finished his last three years. This early formation both required and enhanced the flexibility that Clyde seems to manifest throughout his life. At 15, Clyde applied for and won a summer job helping Paula Sandburg, Carl Sandburgʼs wife, with her goat farm in Harbert, Michigan (see story link). Living with the Pulitzer prize winning poet was less life-changing to the pubescent teen than were the goat raising skills he learned from Paula and his encounter with a Sandburg daughterʼs blond girlfriend on the beach. Carl worked at his typewriter day and night, appearing infrequently to with his family. Clyde has two letters subsequently written to him by the poet. Belva Lou Ross came into Clydeʼs life in their first year at Iowa State. Clyde was a pre-veterinary medicine student and Belva, a farm girl from Iowa who was a very versatile and creative art student. During this period, Belva was recommended to a Cosmopolitan Magazine contributing writer to do a cover girl story entitled “The New Farmerʼs Daughter: How a beautiful, sophisticated twenty year old lives a full, exciting life on an Iowa farm” (see article link). Despite Clydeʼs yearly course major and school changes (pre-vet to zoology, then to Utah State for Wildlife Management and finally applied art), he managed to successfully court Belva and they married in 1957. Belva and Clyde lived as struggling artists in Miller Beach near Gary, Indiana for many years while raising four children. Clyde was always able to find work in art-related sales and was quite successful as a male model for many products including underwear. His dark wavy hair and wholesome face landed him jobs around the country. In 1975 the couple found and purchased their current 1870 home and studio from the Petters for $50,000, much under the asking price. Clyde subsequently worked for Joyce Petter in corporate art sales. Until her stroke, Belva worked with metal and organic material while Clyde moved from painting to join her in metal sculpting. More recently Clyde has returned to a unique form of expressionist painting. The couple were very active in Saugatuck theater, fine art, and other community volunteerism in their years in the area. Two days after Clydeʼs interview, Belva passed. by John Shack A video of this interview and a slideshow of the Ball home and art are in the SDHS oral history archives, link below.

Artists

Winthers, Sally

https://sdhc-collections.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/videos/240-BallClyde-BelvaArtLife.mp4
slideshow from the interview

04/03/2025

04/03/2025