Illuminating Threads of Truth Print

Vince Carl, born in Louisville, Kentucky, at an early age moved to Atlanta then to Cincinnati, in 1980 he relocated to Southern Oregon. He fondly remembers a substitute teacher in grade school encouraging him to explore his artist potential. His studies include: Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 1976 BFA, Mitch Kaufman-Katz, 1978-79, and Pat Enos 1993-96, Rogue Community College. Artists of influence include Kokoschka, Schiele, Picasso, and Rauschenburg. His work has appeared on the cover Art Calendar “Professional Artist” and in various gallery publications, as he has exhibited throughout the United States. Vince’s work has been collected nationally and internationally, recognized mostly for his figurative paintings.  As part of his process, Vince builds his own supports and canvas's.  Describing his work, "My paintings develop through layering, utilizing acrylic paints, charcoal, gold leaf, acrylic mediums, pastel and collage, building thickness in the process.  My innovative use of squeegees to apply the paint is a technique I have been working with for more than 25 years.”  After his application of charcoal and/or pastel, he pushes a thinned solution of acrylic medium through a spray gun sealing the dry media within the layers.  Of this process he states, "While building depth I intermittently sand or scratch into the layers to reveal clues of an earlier state, through this manipulation the layers begin to flow and merge with one another resulting in spatial depth similar to encaustic.  The compositional elements wrap around the edges of the support completing the image for the viewer.  The paintings develop much the same way a person's character does during a lifetime.  By leaving some questions unanswered I attempt to engage the viewer and allow them to bring their own experiences and interpretations to the work."    Vince now lives and works in the forested mountains north of Rogue River, Oregon where he paints snippets of thought and memory of experiences of his life coming to focus in some fashion as well as his figure paintings that he loves.