Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlton Pickett.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
My inspiration has always been literature. As a child I was a great reader, but not a prolific writer. I wanted to tell my own stories, but every time I tried to write I just rewrote aspects of my favorite books. It was like literary collage. I didn’t find a way to feel more immersed in the fictional worlds I loved until I started drawing in high school. I received my B.F.A. in Painting (with a minor in English) from Boston University and a Post-Baccalaureate degree from Laguna College of Art and Design. With this training in realism, I found I could make work while envisioning these worlds in my head and feel closer to them that way. The connection between my work and literature isn’t always evident, but the connection is always there, and it makes the work deeply personal.
Please tell us about your art.
My work is about observing and drawing out what people overlook, whether it’s a cast shadow on a figure or a sliver of light on a wall. I think the relationship between light and shadow in any image creates an entire narrative on its own and I’ve always been fascinated by the subtleties of this relationship. My recent work focuses on this relationship in the natural world using photo references I’ve collected on my trips to New Zealand and the U.K. and in portraiture, with my closest friends and family as the subjects. Currently, I work in the mediums of charcoal and oil paint, and I am pursuing more rigorous, academic art training with artists I admire in Southern California.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Artists don’t talk enough about balance. There is the expectation that the only way to achieve our goals is to work constantly without rest. The reality is, artistic momentum comes in waves. While we’re all on the long uphill march to achieve our artistic goals, I always ask other artists: “What is your other thing?” I want to know how artists are feeding themselves creatively because we all go through seasons of discouragement and stagnation. At 25, I’ve started to write. It’s my “other” thing that doesn’t require mastery or success at the highest level because it is just for me. I’ve also started kickboxing. My advice to other artists would be to find another creative outlet to turn to in seasons of creative difficulty so that after a time, they can return to their main thing with a renewed sense of purpose and energy to achieve their goals.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Currently, I have a piece in the Manifest Gallery show, “Similitude,” in Cincinnati, Ohio. Otherwise, some of my favorite, finished pieces are on my website, and I use Instagram to document my daily life and my works in progress
Contact Info:
- Website: www.carltonhopepickett.com
- Email: carly.pickett@yahoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlyhp/?hl=en
Image Credit:
All image credits to Carlton Pickett
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