The Statement

Exhibition text by Dr. Kaitlyn Purcell, Writer 

Sling Shots and Star Dust

Nathan Eugene Carson pours through piles of whole fragments, surrounded by endless paintings on the floor, loose pieces and silhouettes, paper or cardboard strewn in alleys.

Layers of paint are added sparingly whenever he is called to it. He says he is not much of a paint brush person.

Some pieces are feathered together across a decade. The self-assured artist lets these pieces sit for as long as necessary until a future self finds a thread between past and present.

What visions are unearthed in you when you look into this mirror—this portrait?

The work is profound in the ways the artist pieces together these faces, scrubbing the page, creating cracks and holes. The background becomes the foreground. There are no linearities, only a circling around what is needed.

The didactic says, what do you feel standing here?

Collage has a long history from Black artists and Dadaism, but throughout each of these specific art movements is a shared impulse to respond to the horrors of the world with carefully ripped pages and cut outs.

In our conversations, the artist shares that his aunt, Robyn Snow, inspired him through her own practice with collage.

There is a futurism in Carson’s use of texture and layering created by the directions of his heart. Raised by women, he finds it easy to be in his feelings.

These are collections of little mirrors that once looked more like cardboard and expired gift cards left in alleyways.

If we look closely, we might begin to see that each collage teaches us how to move through life more curiously.

Everyone’s interpretation will become a portrait of their own.

Carson’s process is being surrounded by spirit and expired gift cards left in silhouettes. He is a scholar of emulating air.

Stepping into the artist’s world, to feel and see the immensity of its texture, I have never found myself so moved before. All the hair on my body raised up and tears began to fill my eyes.

The artist pieces together collections of little mirrors that once looked like a hundred papers and paintings on the floor. Loose fragments of alleyways.

In a place swallowed whole by categorizations, Carson’s work reminds me that it’s not again that it’s not even real. We are all star dust, remember?

Even the cartoons would allow themselves to reimagine the hands that built their faces and hues. Soon the whole room is in their feelings.

Anyone that has the chance to learn from Carson through his artwork or his presence will be transformed for the better. Or at least, that is my experience.

His perspective has opened my eyes in ways I haven’t considered, or considered out loud, until now.

Almost everything has become diluted and dulled by mind and money. The heart, intuition, and spirit have been undermined and degraded.

Step into this artist’s world—a refuge away from it all.

Carson’s practice lives within his vision opened by heart and spirit. It led him here.

This is the future I’ve been dreaming of.

Sling Shot is a collection of all the different people in his life working as a server, teaching children, and as an artist. Shannon Norberg once said to him, “Let’s be wise like a serpent and as calm as a lamb.”

There is restraint without any sense of being restrained. He cherishes each expression and image that fills his days, and only pieces together what feels right.

The sling shot is a mischievous toy, but it is also a playful way to shoot something forward. Sling Shot is Carson’s shot forward into a new phase of his life.

Each page is weathered with care. Each paper has been held, and placed into a pile for a year, or ten, before finding itself back into the artist’s hands once again.

If we look at the foreground, there are no linearities, only a circle that teaches us how to move more curiously. There is tension in this unity.

Never been so moved before. All heart and spirit, once undermined, now fill my eyes.

When I showed my three-year old nephew some of the artwork I have been writing about, he was fascinated by all the different pieces and when looking at Deep Sea Diver he burst into giggles and said, “I love that one!”

I wanted to ask more, but I also just wanted to enjoy that moment. I, too, giggled and cried from the inside and out when standing with Side Eye and Slightly Unhinged Patient Hasn’t Slept in Months.

https://norberghall.com/nathan-eugene-carson-sling-shot/