We’re excited to share with you the digital preview for Lindsey Carr‘s debut US solos show. Lindsey will be joining us all the way from Scotland for the reception tonight, so please be sure to swing through if in the area and say hi.
Check out all the works in ‘Homage To Canton‘ from Lindsey Carr here:
www.thinkspacegallery.com/2011/09/project/works-Carr.php
If you see a piece you would like to purchase from ‘Homage To Canton‘ or simply have a question on any of the works, please shoot a mail to contact@thinkspacegallery.com and we will get right back to you.
~An interview with Lindsey Carr~
Please tell us a lil’ bit about yourself and what you hope to communicate through your work.
I’m an artist living in Scotland but i’m actually from near Liverpool. I studied and worked in london for a long time before coming to the hills. My work depends on circumstance and mood really. So some paintings like “Dukkha” are quite pleasant and flowery to look at but I suppose it’s a cynical painting. While others can be just for the love of a subject or are quite joyful.
Can you share a lil’ bit about the themes behind your new body of work for ‘Homage To Canton‘.
Canton refers to the port where Europeans were allowed to trade in China in the 18th – 19thC. One of the people who was there – a tea inspector called John Reeves – came back with some of the most beautiful pieces of natural history ever made – especially the bird and flower paintings. All of the paintings were made by anonymous artists working at the port.So the work references that time and place – the politics of it – and hopefully some of the aesthetic.
Actually I have to confess there’s one piece which doesn’t really have anything to do with that – but it was a portrait I desperately wanted to do….theme’s are made to be broken!
When did you know you wanted to follow the path of being a full-time artist?
As a teenager I thought it was a given but actually I landed a job straight out of college doing digital design. I didnt’ feel like I could refuse, the money was good, it was close enough to making art that it took a long time to figure out that there was a big difference. I didn’t make art during those 10 years and I greatly regret that now….Anyone who’s starting out and reading this – take heed!
What fuels you to keep creating?
I’m not sure. It seems like a compulsive activity. I get anxious and annoyed if i’m not able to work. If I feel ill or unhappy it helps me forget myself. Sometimes it’s difficult of course but mostly it’s a privilege.
Please describe your dream project if time and money were not issues.
I would like to work to a much larger scale and start to work with etchings again. The second i’m doing but the former is limited by the size of my studio which is tiny.
Favorite item in your studio?
Not an item as such – I have a lot of beautiful books and folios of natural history art.
Is there anyone in particular, artist or otherwise, that you’d like to give a shout out to here?
If I started I wouldn’t stop honestly. The last year I’ve been fortunate enough to become acquainted with so many excellent artists and to a (wo)man all of them have been the total opposite of the egoistic self-centered artist stereotype.
Any shows or special projects coming up after your exhibit with us here at Thinkspace you would like to mention?
I’m working on a project called ‘The Unseen Bestiary‘ which is a set of paintings and etchings of animals and plants which I’ve never seen. I ask people to submit text descriptions to me – if I’ve never seen it before it can be used in the project. I’m not allowed to look it up or find any description outside of the one given to me. It’s based on the bestiaries of the middle ages which were generally populated with illustrations of animals that the artists had never seen.
The project site is here: www.unseenbestiary.com. I welcome and am grateful for anyone who is willing to take the time to describe an animal/plant/bird/insect etc to me that I might be able to use.
Lindsey Carr
‘Homage To Canton’
Reception with the artist: TONIGHT – Sat, Sept. 10th 5-8PM
Thinkspace / 6009 Washington Blvd in Culver City, CA / www.thinkspacegallery.com
