New in 2011!

Great way to start the New Year: my website has just been updated!

www.CatherineCarterArt.com

Origins: Part 3, My Career Begins

Here’s the third part of an ongoing series, in which I show my earlier works and trace how I found my voice as an artist.

It was luck more than design, but once I had graduated with my master’s degree, I was determined to continue the momentum I had established during grad school. This meant finding a STUDIO, and here I soon struck gold.

I found a giant and very affordable studio in Fall River, Massachusetts. The building had formerly been a textile mill, circa nineteenth century, but now it housed a number of small businesses and artist studios.

When the realtor first showed me this giant space and told me the monthly rent was $150, I thought she had made an error and quickly signed the lease so as to lock in what I was sure was a mistaken amount. It wasn’t! This shot shows HALF of my giant studio:



The space gave my paintings room to GROW, and they soon did. I continued to work with acrylic paint and large shapes of fabric collaged onto stretched canvas. I often embellished the image with gestural lines made in oil stick (lines which later began to figure even more prominently in my work). Here’s a picture of me beside a work in progress in 1997 (taken by my husband, Kevin):



It wasn’t long before I received a studio visit from Joan Briand, who ran a lovely gallery in the same building as my studio and was known for championing local artists. Joan looked at my work and offered me a solo show on the spot. I was very excited!

So my exhibit “Collage Paintings” was presented at Facets Gallery during September 1997, only months after I had graduated from UMass Dartmouth. Here are some views from the show:







Another important thing that happened to me soon after college graduation was that I was hired at The New Bedford Standard-Times as a copy editor. This was total luck! I had no experience in journalism whatsoever. But I noticed, in my jobless state, that the newspaper company was housed in a large modern building (see below) within walking distance of my apartment, and I thought they might be hiring. I had worked as a secretary before, and wondered if they might need someone to answer their telephones.

Lo and behold, I was offered an interview and, soon afterward, a job as a copy editor. Frankly I didn’t even know what a copy editor was, but I accepted the job and soon realized that I was one of those nit-picky readers who could detect even the slightest error in the densest text.



I also struck gold with this job, in that: 1. I found myself working with the nicest group of people in that newsroom that I have ever known in my entire life (many of whom are still friends, 12 years later), and 2. I now had a secure financial situation that allowed me to paint during the day and work during the afternoon and evening. It was ideal!

Next installment: My professional painting career takes off …

Review of "George Segal: Fragments and Pastels"

My review of the exhibit "George Segal: Fragments and Pastels" appears in today's New Bedford Standard-Times. To read, please click here. (Please note that you have to "subscribe" to read the article, but it is free to register as a subscriber.)

Highlights of 2009-2010

As a preliminary step to moving my older work off of my website and putting my newest series on there instead, I have put images of my works from the past 2 years on Flickr.

It's like a diary of all I've been up to since 2009.

Feel free to take a look, by clicking here.

Looking and understanding

It has been a big week of art viewing for me. I admit that I am a homebody and I almost never travel. I get so overwhelmed by life and its many details and commitments that it's all I can do to deal with what's right in front of my nose.

But last week I finally had the time, energy and determination to look at art. Not just any art, GREAT ART. Wednesday I saw the tremendous exhibit of George Segal's work at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Art Gallery, curated by David B. Boyce, who was a personal friend of and model for the late Mr. Segal. And Friday I went to visit galleries in the Chelsea district of New York City, where I saw much that was great, including exhibits by Anselm Kiefer (Gagosian Gallery) and Brice Marden (Matthew Marks Gallery).

These experiences have truly changed my perspective, not just realizations about adaptations I want to make in my daily life and yearly goals, but also deep-rooted discoveries about who I am, what I want to make of my life and how I might go about doing so. Such is the power of art!!

And returning to my studio and looking at my latest works with these recent art-viewing experience fresh in my mind has given me direct insight into what I'm currently making and where it has the potential to go artistically.

Among many other things, I realize that I have been far more focused on resume-building than on art-creating. I don't mean time-wise, because I certainly paint many hours a week, especially for someone who teaches as much as I do. But as far as vision, as far as long-term focus, I realize I haven't been letting my art come from as deep a place as it could, or say as much as it could. I've been settling for short-term considerations, for work that's not bad but not fully developed.

I've been too afraid of what might happen, of ending up like someone I don't want to be like, instead of spreading my wings and seeing how far I can fly.

Time will tell how this new consciousness manifests itself, but I feel greatly changed inside. A wonderful way to end what has been a year of great progress!

Image shown above is a number of pieces from my new series of works on paper.

A present from Jack Frost

When I was little, my grandmother always used to call me to the window in wintertime. "See what Jack Frost has left us!" she would say, and we would admire the pretty patterns that Jack had painted on the glass.

This morning I had a whole window of icy lace to admire! I'm thankful to have this little message from Grandma, to remember to admire the beauty in the everyday, as she did.

Trials, tribulations, and finally success!

I've spent the last few days wrangling with a painting. I tried a reddish brown surface. Not too bad, but not good enough. I tried adding more color. UGH. Start again: painted it over with white paint.

I tried a watery black surface. It looked great on a smaller painting I'd made earlier. But not this time. UGH. I tried getting a bit darker. UGH. Too dark. Start again: another coat of white paint.

I tried a green/black combination. It had also worked on a smaller version. UGH. I tried adding a layer of black and gel medium. UGH. I tried adding a layer of green. UGH. Start again: another coat of white paint.

So I got up this morning and was faced with that white surface again. I'd run dry of ideas. Randomly, my hand reached for a nearby tube of orange/brown paint, and I just squirted it all over the surface and rubbed it in with a brush.

Excellent!! Done!!

I know many other artists make preparatory drawings, sketchbook studies, color swatches, gridded compositions, and many other practices to plan out their intentions for a painting. I CAN'T! Ironically, I am an extremely organized person in all other areas of my life. But when it comes to painting, I have to be spontaneous, or nothing works out.

Painter Rebecca Crowell describes her artistic process, which shares a lot in common with mine, in today's post on her blog. I recommend reading her thoughts, especially if you're one of us "listen to the painting" types.

Profile on Danforth Museum School

Here's a recent profile on the wonderful Danforth Museum School, where I have had the good fortune to teach (to teens, adults, and art teachers) for the past 7 years:

Going green with Fruit of the Loom

For reasons of pride (and, as my grandmother always said, "What if there was a fire and the firemen had to carry you out?"), I guess we all have regular purges of our old well-worn underpants.

I just bought a raft of new undies at Target and, in the spirit of "going green," decided I could use the old ones as painting rags. It makes you feel like you're really doing something for the environment! Since, let's face it, that's one contribution of "old clothes" that the Salvation Army isn't going to thank you for.

Series of works on paper continues

Continuing to make these works on paper, in acrylic, 20 inches square. Very happy with the results. Waiting in the wings, variations in blue and in yellow/gold: