Above: "Sunset on the Farm Pond," 9 x 12, oil on board (2017)
My Art Journey
My art interests are wide-ranging: from abstract to semi-representational, and from landscapes to still life. Starting as a watercolorist, my work has been predominately in oil since 2008, but I sometimes paint using acrylic, oil over acrylic, and oil with cold wax. In the last few years, I have drawn/painted in digital art.
My first career was in the law, first as a legal aid attorney and then Deputy Director of Legal Services of North Carolina. After that, I worked at Duke Law School for 24 years. I was an Associate Dean for many years and taught Poverty Law for 22 years as a Senior Lecturing Fellow through 2015.
Each time I have returned to art as my primary passion, I am surprised at how far back my interest in art was evident. For example, I took a semester of drawing while an undergrad student at UNC Chapel Hill (where I also graduated from law school). During the transition from my first legal career to my second, I had a period of three years taking lessons and producing many watercolor paintings.
Then, many years later, retirement from my legal career allowed a return to art. Since then I have studied with many great artists and have taken classes in watercolor, oil, acrylics, cold wax, palette-knife painting and pottery. Also, I am an avid reader of both historical and contemporary art. I have had the good fortune of travel and this always includes seeking out art museums wherever I go. I am sure that most of you share my experience of spending hours in museums before paintings that make our hearts soar. Like many painters, I am an avid photographer. I receive inspiration from thousands of photographs that I take during travels, as well as at home, in my garden and walking around the neighborhood. I see beauty or uniqueness almost everywhere.
Above: "Gingkos," 6 x 9, Oil and Cold Wax on paper (2016)
I have received a bit of recognition for my work. I was selected for the Corridors Exhibition at ArtSpace for three months in fall 2017 where nine pieces of my work were shown. I won first place at an art show at Duke Law School, and I received a recognition for excellence by the judges of the 2000 Duke University Employee Arts and Crafts Exhibition. These awards resulted in display of the selected work at Duke Medical Center and Duke Law School.
Then, along came 2022 and lots of opportunities with many extending into 2023.
* My art products have been at the NC Museum of Art Museum Store for all of 2022 and now into 2023
* I participated in a panel at a Friday Center continuing education program explaining my art techniques
* The Woman’s Club of Wake County named me May, 2022 Artist of the Month and exhibited my works there
* In August, the contemporary arts and crafts store, Troika in Floyd, VA, began selling my scarves
* The Joslin House and Garden invited me to have a six-week exhibition in September and October
* In October, I was the featured speaker at the North Carolina Women’s Forum about my journey from law to art
* A painting of mine, along with an Op Ed that explained it was published in the N and O, Charlotte O, and Durham Herald (about these horrible and omnipresent emails begging for campaign donations)
*Along with artist Cindy McEnery and Joyce Watkins King we had our 3rd Annual Holiday Art Festival in my garden
* And then to the latest at the NCMA. In August the Museum invited me to "interpret" one of the 53 masterpieces from the Phillips Collection Exhibition (in Raleigh through January 22, 2023) and then use the image of my interpretation on scarves. I chose Wassily Kandinsky’s Autumn II. Both the painting and the scarves, and now tote bags, are for sale in the museum exhibition store set up to go with the Phillips. NCMA is also selling many of my other scarf designs in the main Museum Store.
Then the Museum invited me to choose one of its pieces of art that is interpreted by floral designers for Art in Bloom 2023. I chose a Grecian urn called a Skyphos (a two-handled wine cup) with an owl pattern. I did a digital interpretation of it and designed scarves with it. The owl scarves along with others are now available at the NC Museum of Art Store.
I am so grateful for all those who made 2022, and now 2023, such a special year for expressing my art.
Thank you for your interest in my art journey!
Carol
