Today we’d like to introduce you to Renee Bresten Carter.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up in Massachusetts, and I attended a Catholic private high school that had virtually no fine arts program in place. I latched on to the few clubs and extracurriculars I had available to me that were creatively inclined- the school magazine, guitar club, yearbook, and creative writing. Though the vast majority of the time I could be found drawing in my sketchbook during free period and scribbling in my notebooks during class. I first discovered my love for drawing through anime. I adapted the style and would spend hours sketching, inking, coloring, and photoshopping my portraits of beautiful fantasy-like characters with bright colors and stern faces. I started a Deviant Art and filled it with my work, which soon began to expand to different areas of art. I saved up and bought my first Canon digital camera when I was 16 and began exploring photo through self-portraits and making my friends model for me. I’d dabble in any medium available to me, but I was mostly glued to my 72 set of Copic markers. Early on in high school, I had the privilege of taking some life drawing classes at the MFA Boston and some painting classes at Massart, my future college, on the weekends. Being in that environment was so entirely different from the school environment I was used to, I was enamored and amazed. It reminded me that the art world is wide open and never-ending and that it was okay to venture beyond my sketchbook and micron pens.
I applied to three colleges. Massart was my top pick, SCAD was my second, and UMass Amherst was my backup. Ironically, I got into Massart and SCAD but didn’t get into UMass.
Foundation year at school was liberating and eye-opening. Suddenly, I was on my own, far away from my straight-laced Catholic school, it’s clean halls, it’s chapel, it’s plaid skirts and polo shirts. The halls of Massart are covered in charcoal smears and scrawling drawings. The floors are coated in old dried paint and chalk pastel dust. I remember having to take showers after certain classes, watching Smokey black water swirl in the drain after five hours of gesture drawings with vine charcoal. It was electrifying, the teachers, my peers, the resources available to us, I couldn’t believe it had become my job to just make things. I couldn’t believe they thought I was good enough to join this club.
When I went to declare a major, I first chose Art Education with a minor in Painting. I lasted exactly one hour as an Art Education major before I went to the head of the painting department and told him I couldn’t do it, it wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to be a woman of the people, I didn’t want to dress nicely, I didn’t want to teach, I wanted to learn, and I just wanted to paint.
I learned from some incredible artists in my painting years. My work ebbed and flowed from subject matter to subject matter as I tried desperately to figure out what kind of artist I was and to figure out what it was I wanted to paint. I wish I could have understood that there is no destination in this practice, it’s a journey, and we can reinvent ourselves as many times as we want, there are no rules.
I worked hard through college, Junior and Senior year, I worked full time as a manager at a Mexican restaurant near Boston College. I was also apprenticing at a tattoo shop just outside the city and spent my weekends there (it never amounted to anything, turns out if you want to be successful at something your teacher also has to want you to be successful).
By the time graduation rolled around, I couldn’t figure out what my next move was. So, I moved to San Diego. I shipped six boxes via USPS and paid to have my beater of a car hauler (filled with paintings) across the country. I lived in a studio in Ocean Beach. I dedicated a little corner to my paints and canvases. I painted, had a few commissions, displayed some work in the coffee shop my boyfriend worked at, I sunbathed and swam, I waitressed, and I drank IPAs in dark bars. That is until I found out I was pregnant.
I had my son on March 6th, 2016. 10.11 lbs of love, taking up every ounce of energy I had to offer, and suddenly I was regretting the time I hadn’t spent painting when I had more time. But hey, that’s life.
These days, I work full time as a design consultant and sales associate at a high-end furniture store. I get my creative hoo-ha’s from helping people decorate their homes, and paint after work or on my days off when my son is at school. Occasionally, I bust out the paints and let my son use my easel and brushes (with acrylic) watching him discover art is my new favorite thing.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The main problems I have encountered along the way, have been my own self-doubt and anxiety. And to be clear, I have not overcome these problems. It’s hard not to look around you as an artist and compare every other person’s artwork to your own, and pick yourself apart. It’s intimidating to see my classmates succeeding in ways I am not, and thinking “well if I had only done this or that differently…” It’s a constant struggle to lift the artificial pressure I have put on myself, especially now that I am a wife and mother and sometimes feel I squandered the free time I had before I got pregnant and couldn’t touch Linseed oil or breath in turpentine, and then having little to no time or energy to paint with my newborn to take care of. I wish there were 48 hours in each day, that way I could work 8 hours, paint for eight hours so I could have a reputable body of work and then still have the time to be a good mother and an attentive wife. Again, the most import thing to remember is that there are no rules, we can do whatever we want, and there is no destination, there is no goal or time limit on finding yourself, there is only this journey where we have ALL of the control and can reinvent ourselves as many times as we want, as women and as artists. Comparing yourself to others, creating unrealistic standards, it takes all of the magic out of being an artist, and out of being a person.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I am an oil painter. I had the opportunity to try all kinds of mediums in school, but nothing compares to drawing and painting for me.
My favorite thing to paint is people. I love the intricacies and expressive nature of the human face and body. Lately, I’ve also been doing a lot of still lives, and I’m finding myself more and more interested in landscapes, so we will see where that goes.
I think a stranger looking at my work might describe it as painterly, textured, contrasting, and maybe a little dramatic. I like wide visible brush strokes, I like the markings of a pallet knife, I really like the nature of the materials used to show.
Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
I grew up with successful, educated and hardworking parents, and I am so grateful for their influence. My work ethic is a direct result of observing how hard my parents worked (and still work). Watching them excel in their careers also helped me realize where my interests lied, and they weren’t even close to the same as my parents. My father is an engineer who runs data centers. He is ridiculously smart, loves math and science, and is a huge history buff. My mother is VP and treasurer of a company she has worked for practically my entire life. When my dad would help me with my math homework when I was younger, I could hear the passion in his voice, I could hear his gears turning. When my mom talks about her job, her company, I can hear the pride in her voice. I feel that same passion and pride for art. The day I dropped Art Education, I was afraid to call my mother and tell her I decided to just be a painting major, knowing it was way less practical. to my surprise her response was, “You were signed up for Art Ed? That’s not really you. I thought you were just going to go for painting.”
I am grateful for my parent’s encouraging nature, too. They gave me a great foundation education at my private prep school and were the ones driving me to and from and paying for my art classes when my school didn’t offer any. They essentially opened every door and let me choose which one I wanted to walk through. I am very lucky.
Contact Info:
- Email: reneebresten@gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/reneebrestenart
- Twitter: Twitter.com/reenskii
Image Credit:
Eli Carter
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