Artist Statement for Catharine Carter:
I have always loved fairy tales, fables and myths and vividly remember my father reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales to me as a child. Even at a young age, I could feel that there was a life lesson hidden within the story or maybe a roadmap for living. Their universal appeal and archetypal characters speak to the collective consciousness that unites us as humans.
The ideas or themes for my photo stories often start with a word or phrase that becomes embedded in my mind and begins to crystalize into a pictorial narrative. Through journaling, notes and sketches, I begin to explore my own emotional response to these thoughts but it is the universal human response that interests me the most. Each photomontage is a vignette within a larger story; my protagonist or heroine/hero must face a challenge and/or make a choice.
I hope my images will be the entry point for a story that a viewer can engage with using their own memories and fantasies to complete the rest of the narrative and discovery their own journey.
My love of the illustrations of artist, Arthur Rackham, in the storybooks of my youth have inspired my use of warm sepia tones and added texture
