Carter's Artist Statement

With my work, I aim to look closely at the things around me. I’m drawn to working observationally, most often in oil paint. My interest is more in the challenge of translating spaces and objects that exist in reality into two dimensions in a way that creates something fundamentally new without losing sight of that initial reality. I find that I’m less interested in imagined scenes, moreso when painting than drawing, because you lose that ability to compare the two spaces.

I try to work as responsively as possible, with strong, decisive marks preferring to work in long sessions or taking time to step away and later revisit. I have found an interest in light and touch and how these principles interact to create a believable space, as well as how they challenge my usual commitment to contour. I work to balance these conscious elements of design with a more intuitive empathy for the things I’m painting in order to create an authentic, considered work of art. My process in creating anything artistic is centered around learning something new about the medium I’m working with. I create art to discover how and what I see in an intentional way, to look internally at myself by responding to my environment rather than focusing solely on the canvas.

I like the idea that what I create is on some level “evidence of living”, that I was there and I saw something and considered every aspect of it intensely for a period of time, and then moved on.