One Love

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds"- Bob Marley, Redemption Song

 

Ever since I can remember, I have been listening to the music of Bob Marley. You could say I was raised on it I guess. At the young age of 3ish years old, I knew almost all the words to his songs on the "Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers" 1984 album. Every road trip has always included some "Jammin" to some classic reggae.

 

When I was younger, my parents and I (before my sister was born) lived a short walk away from a popular beach. I was a short little girl with flaming red hair, running down the beach, when all of a sudden I came across a man walking towards me. He had long dread locks, chocolate skin, and was clearly living the Rastafarian lifestyle. So what did little 3 year old me do? I ran up to him a yelled "Mommy look, its Bob Marley!!"

Yes, I made his day...maybe even his week. He was probably wondering how the heck I knew who Mr. Marley was, let alone what he looked like.

 

So it's safe to say I am a die-hard Marley fan, and I love his music, and everything he did over his lifetime, and what he stands for (except for maybe the imense usage of narcotics...cough cough marijuana).  I have made a number of pieces of him, but this one is the best, and the biggest...when I say big, its big. I used acrylic paints and tape to make the notorious Rasta background, then made stencils to spray paint the words and his face on afterwards! Super fun to make because you cant really control the spray paint, and how much over-spray you get, so its different every time.

 

On a recent trip home from Europe, I watched a documentary on the airplane about his life, told by his family and friends called "Marley", I HIGHLY recommend it, even if you're not much of a Marley fan. Its very touching and inspiring....and it made me cry. I'm a sappy person. But, I really learned a lot about his life, and what he did to shape the world.

So this one's for you, Bob...

 

 



One last thing, I really despise "poser" Bob Marley fans that don't know anything about him other than the fact he smoked a lot of dope and made music...This man was a legend and stood for much more. 

R.I.P.
xo carter

Clean Lines

 

This next piece is one that is not really my preferred style,  as it takes a lot of patience to complete, but it has a very clean and sophisticated look to it...

 



 
As part of an abstract art unit in class, I didn't want to create something that was too busy, which is a theme that is often associated with abstract art.

I had the colours of my living room in mind throughout the making of this painting. We have a "swamp coloured" (as I called it in a piece of writing back in the second grade, which did not please my mother very much) green sofa, which is accented by rusty toned pillows. The mantel above the fireplace, along with a long dresser cover in an absurd amount of moneys worth of orchids (my mom is a florist)  are painted the same colour as the sofa, to tie our living room together.

 

Anyways, enough about my living room, here's the painting. Thanks to taping off lines, lots of molding paste mixed with gold acrylic paint, and various jewel toned paints, I was able to complete my "abstract" piece.

 

xo carter

 

Googoo for Gaga

There's a first for everything...


This painting included a lot of firsts. It was my first time making a stencil, first time using spray paint, and first time making a large (very large) scale painting... And I loved every second of it.

Since I really love pop culture, making a stencil of the one and only Lady Gaga, the queen of pop, seemed appropriate. The face of Miss Gaga is recognized by almost everyone around the globe, since she has had such a strong impact on the music and fashion scene.

As you can see, there are four different quadrants, each with  a different base colour, as well as a mixture of other colours, to give it a tie-dyed look. This is my twist on a classic Andy Warhol pop art painting.
This piece was a blast to create, and its definitely one of my favourites...

xo carter

The Beginning of Something Beautiful

I put the ART in Carter...

With my last name being Carter, I was born to do art, it's in my name for darn's sake!
It's always been a huge passion of mine, and apparently I'm not half bad. After completing numerous pieces of artwork in the past, I have finally decided to create a blog about them...to show off my work.  I have no really formal art background, other than taking art throughout my grade school years, but really, you don't need much other than a canvas, paint, and a mask, to do my kind of art.

I have always been an artsy girl, but rarely find time in my busy schedule to complete a piece. Training 8 times per week, for 2 and a half hours per practice, on top of school, and a scarce social life, my time working in my sketch books is limited. The only time I really ever got to sit down and solely focus on a piece of artwork, was during my art classes at school.

In this past couple months I have really grown as an artist, with the help of my marvelous school art teacher, Cindy. She has given me the materials, freedom and inspiration to create some of the pieces that will be showcased on my blog. With the help of a classmate and friend, Sang Do, who is an incredible artist himself, I have found my new passion: SPRAY PAINT. Sang and another classmate of ours, Frank, both taught me how to make stencils. Its a simple, and very effective method to portray and image onto a canvas with the help of some spray paint.

I have always admired street art, and really bold pieces, like the work of Andy Warhol.
That's why you'll see a lot of that style in my work...I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

xo carter