Fellow Traveler & Seeker Exploring Curiosity & Creativity Through The Depths.
Artist Biography: Carly Palmer is a Chicagoland based artist and writer. She primarily works in the artistic mediums of hand-cut paper collage and acrylic hard-edge geometric abstracts. She has exhibited in several local galleries and community spaces in the Greater Chicago Area as part of both group and solo shows. She is a Resident Artist and School of Art Outreach Instructor at Water Street Studios in Batavia. There she also manages and curates the Community Gallery. Her aim is to bring a spirit of possibility and purpose, especially for emerging artists.
She is a 2021-2023 Jungian Studies Program Cohort Graduate from C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. Participants studied the fundamentals of Jungian theory grounded in experiential learning. She was selected to participate in Kolaj Institute’s virtual “Curating Collage Workshop '' which was designed to train artists as curators. The program focused on how to create a bridge between artwork and audience.
She has presented several of her exploratory papers, all of which have featured her own artwork, at the London Arts-Based Research Centre’s online conferences. She recently self-published her first book. “Time And Time Again” showcases her paper collages paired with writings in response to each. All of the collages in this book contain images of various types of clocks and references to time in a literal or metaphorical sense. Often, she personifies time to conjure and convey psychological ideas through her art. She writes a bimonthly newsletter called “Artful Reflections” that shares her short writings about the unseen aspects of artmaking alongside studio updates. To receive this newsletter, sign up on her website.
Her most personally meaningful work as an artist and writer weaves together elements of depth psychology, surrealism, and symbolism. This is the creative trinity where both she and her art feel most alive. She is a long-time seasoned professional makeup artist (www.carlydoesmakeup.com) and has run her own business, specializing in bridal and wedding work, for just over a decade. Her client process focuses on collaboration and connection through co-creation.
Artist Statement: I let the creative process intuitively unfold and invite flow to find me. I have a deep appreciation for re-purposing, re-imagining, and juxtaposing seemingly disparate objects and ideas to watch them interact. I play with veiled patterns in life, art, and everything. Like a moth to a flame, I am drawn to the light, but shadow does not escape me. I am constantly asking the question “why” and letting it unravel the threads to deeper insights and experience. Finding ways to explore, express, and embody my own curiosity invites me to continue to evolve. I am fascinated by the complexity of the human mind, and endlessly inspired by psychology, specifically Dr. Carl Jung’s work. I’ve always been drawn to hidden meanings and scratching at the surface, and because of this my work often hovers at the crossroads of intention and impulse. Hauntingly beautiful patterns of possibility will appear before me. Seizing me awestruck. My eyes are closed yet wide open.
“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
“Words are animals, alive with a will of their own.”