Carroll Swenson-Roberts
As a child my family went to Catholic church every Sunday.The only thing I liked about church was the art. The art told stories in a direct but mysterious way. I thought it was a wonderful way of communicating. The stories in artworks are not linear. The whole story is there to be seen in the order the viewer wishes to see it. The art I’m drawn to the most are the pieces that change or reveal new and different readings when seen over time.
The subject of the stories I tell narrate memories and thoughts of family ,friends ,walks, travels marriage, motherhood ,childhood, pets, meals ,music, dance, gardens. The focus of my art is the surprise and joy of an ordinary life.
Memories are not a passive recording of everyday events. We construct our own memories to help us understand our lives. We continually use these constructed memories to tell our own story to ourselves and to others. Memories are a way of reconstructing ordinary moments and making them into a personal narrative. My art continues this transformation into the visual world.
I start most pieces with an underpainting .I use very wet paints and ink and occasional throw in some salt, then let the piece dry so the paint puddles and the salt soaks up color which provides a surface with random areas of light and shadow . I then I make a quick sketch of an remembered and imagined space . I paint with small brushes and draw with pencils, ink, charcoal . The small brush strokes and marks and collage pieces make the development of the piece slow this provides me time to consider every inch of the surface and all the aspect of the story.
As a child my family went to Catholic church every Sunday.The only thing I liked about church was the art. The art told stories in a direct but mysterious way. I thought it was a wonderful way of communicating. The stories in artworks are not linear. The whole story is there to be seen in the order the viewer wishes to see it. The art I’m drawn to the most are the pieces that change or reveal new and different readings when seen over time.
The subject of the stories I tell narrate memories and thoughts of family ,friends ,walks, travels marriage, motherhood ,childhood, pets, meals ,music, dance, gardens. The focus of my art is the surprise and joy of an ordinary life.
Memories are not a passive recording of everyday events. We construct our own memories to help us understand our lives. We continually use these constructed memories to tell our own story to ourselves and to others. Memories are a way of reconstructing ordinary moments and making them into a personal narrative. My art continues this transformation into the visual world.
I start most pieces with an underpainting .I use very wet paints and ink and occasional throw in some salt, then let the piece dry so the paint puddles and the salt soaks up color which provides a surface with random areas of light and shadow . I then I make a quick sketch of an remembered and imagined space . I paint with small brushes and draw with pencils, ink, charcoal . The small brush strokes and marks and collage pieces make the development of the piece slow this provides me time to consider every inch of the surface and all the aspect of the story.
