Carol Carter

Artist’s Statement

Having grown up in Florida, my strongest visual impression of an environment for human activity is water.  In much of my work, water, either literal or suggested, provides the setting for anonymous figures.  Because the figures are abstracted, they become generic; their generic nature allows for expansion of the narrative beyond a personal, anecdotal statement to portray a more universal human condition.  

The paintings contain duality: clarity and ambiguity; sanctuary and threat; pleasure and pain.  The use of vibrant, saturated colors--beautiful, but confrontational in their intensity--contributes to the tension between these extremes.  The large scale of the watercolor and acrylic pieces is also confrontational.  The resulting images are seductive, powerful, and strangely disquieting.

For me, painting should have an intimacy, mysteriousness, sensuality.  At its best, my work also has an edge; something in it that takes a moment, a second look, an effort to comprehend.