Interview with 5-50 Gallery on Instagram

View on Instagram here.

Let’s meet carrie R! Her work was included in the group show BEAM ME UP, which was curated by Lauren Hirshfield and on view earlier this year. We got a little glimpse of where her art comes to life and asked her all about her work!

❓Can you tell us something about the process in your work?

✨Sometimes I start with a form in mind, and sometimes I begin totally off the cusp. Generally working on the floor with snips and wire, I construct a skeleton and give it an aqua veil skin for stability. This part is when I wish I had 6 hands, but the contraptions I make to hold things in place suffice for now. Then it’s layers of brushing and hand-smearing pigmented aquaresin and hydrostone. My favorite moment is when I step away and realize an angle or curve is off, and I have to smash or break areas to reshape them. The labor makes me feel like a mad surgeon meets archaeologist. The final move is coloring over it with various media, and sometimes a piece will sit for months before it fully comes to me.

❓What is currently influencing your practice the most?

✨Currently, my exhaustion. I’ve been feeling exceptionally tired lately, and my work in the studio is responding to this, along with my day-to-day environments. The forms generally come from the simple things around me and my moods, so there are some pieces in progress in the corner right now that look like they could use a nap.

❓What memorable responses have you had to your work?

✨ I’ve been told several times that my sculptures remind people of the work of Delia Deetz from Beetlejuice, and until recently I actually hadn’t seen the full movie. I like the idea that my work might be compared to a fictitious artist. It makes sense to me—fiction is the world I’m currently most interested in. Other memorable responses… people want to see this stuff bigger, and I’m working on it 😊

*****