John Clay is a webdesigner, artist, writer, and editor. After formal training in anthropology at Notre Dame University and in music composition at New England Conservatory and Washington State University, he began pursuing interests in visual art and philosophy. Theory, design, and application are the constants among these pursuits.

He writes on life, society, and philosophy, with a focus on democracy, philosophy of knowledge, and the labor theory of value. His article "The Deep Difference Between Labor and Use-Value" was published in July 2006 in Science & Society journal. His interview with artist Chuck Close is published online at Artzar.com and bhag.net.

His photos and paintings have shown at cafes and bars in New York City and Boston, as well as at Out of the Blue Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Georgian Court College Library in Lakewood, New Jersey.

John Clay is the founder and webmaster of bhag.net and democraticpromise.org, and from 2003 to 2006 worked as Manager of Web & Information Systems for The Explorers Club. He was a volunteer for the election campaigns of New York City Council member Diana Reyna and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and in April 2006 led the Williamsburg Brooklyn canvass group for the Democratic Party's Neighbor-to-Neighbor National Organizing Day.