Most experienced clematis growers recommend hard pruning ALL clematis types for at least the first couple of growing seasons regardless of pruning group. This serves to encourage the development of a strong, healthy root system able to support significant top growth, increases wilt resistance in those varieties prone to this issue and stimulates additional shooting (more stems) from the root crown.

Rather than arbitrarily selecting a height, cut back to the second set of leaf nodes. These should be fairly obvious as this is where new growth buds form in pairs on either side of the stem. Often there will be remnants of last year's growth present - the old leaf petioles and maybe even last season's dried leaves.

Your clematis is most likely a pruning group 2 - the vast majority of the large flowered hybrids are - and blooms on both old and new growth. Hard pruning now will eliminate the early flowers originating from the old growth but you should get a flush of blooms from the new growth a bit later in the season. If by chance it is a group 3, no worries as these all bloom on new growth and annual hard pruning is the standard practice.

Typically you would want to do this a bit earlier - late winter is the timing usually recommended - but doing so now is fine and highly encouraged.

Thanks for the reply gardengal! So I went outside, and, trying to follow your instructions I cut back to just under the 2nd set of leaf nodes from last year. Or, should I cut back to the ones that have already greened out this year? In other words all I did was cut back all of the dead looking stems. I am attaching a picture so you all can see what I see lol

Well, it's hard to see exactly where you cut back to but what I see does look like a reasonably decent haircut!! FWIW, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to seriously damage a clematis by pruning so it's all good.

And when you cut back next winter, go for just above the second set of leaf nodes :-)