As a paper artist, I gather books, magazines, brochures and catalogs to create hand-cut works of art that people often mistake for oil paintings when viewed from a distance.
I admire the unrealistic love and dedication required to craft treasures such as the Book of Kells and Lyndisfarne Gospels. Apprenticing myself to these anonymous monks hunched over their desks, I too, pour hundreds of hours into my projects, carefully constructing microcosms lurking within a slice of life, be that geese squawking near a pond or a magical street scene in Naples.
My art is intended to cause the viewer to freshly consider the mismatched snippets of history and pop culture spliced together. I long to make my images an exercise in recovering wonder, as if the person viewing my art is an explorer commissioned by the Spanish Court, hankering for an adventure.
And so my days are, to borrow a pun, quite literally, cut out for me, days spent hauling stacks of donated magazines back home and sifting through thousands of pages for textures, letters, faces, pieces and parts much like the squirrels gather nuts and the ants collect kitchen-counter crumbs.
I wait patiently, working meticulously at a snail’s pace, to fashion something special, something just right, something that AI lacks the heart to produce.
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Franklin Theater Art Show at the Franklin Theater in Franklin, TN
2021 “Unprecedented: Franklin in 2020” at The Rutledge in Franklin, TN
2019 “China and Beyond” at Raven and Whale Gallery in Nashville, TN
2016 “Frolics in Italy” at O’More College of Design in Franklin, TN
Group Exhibitions
2023 “C.AU.S.E Fest/Rebels For a Cause” at Liberty Hall in Franklin, TN
2022 Flying Solo Summer Exhibit at BNA in Nashville, TN
2020 “Hindsight is 20/20” Centennial Art Center in Nashville, TN
2017 “Brentwood Academy Art Show” in Brentwood, TN
2015 “Embodiment” at OZ Arts Nashville in Nashville, TN
Selected Press
2023 Franklin Lifestyles Magazine https://citylifestyle.com/nashville-tn/articles/arts-and-culture/more-than-meets-the-eye-2 on 2.1.2023 by Karen Creason
2022 News Channel 5 https://www.newschannel5.com/news/flying-solo-series-summer-installments-now-open-at-nashville-international-airport on 7.10.2022
2022 Brentwood HomePage https://www.williamsonhomepage.com/brentwood/artist-carolyn-beehler-dedicates-new-work-to-franklin-theatre/article_07eb2f52-c28a-11ec-bf4f-cb5490b688d5.html on 4.220.2022
2022 Creative Boom https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/unprecedented for March 2022
2021 The Art List https://www.theartlist.com/featured-artists/2021-carolyn-beehler for July 2021
2017 Artist A Day www.artistaday.com/?p=28446 on 5.17.2017
2017 Supersonic Art www.supersonicart.com/post/160457195983/carolyn-beehler post by Zach Tutor on 5.8.2017
2017 Creative Boom www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/art/ post by Katy Cowan on 4.19.2017
2016 The Williamson Source, williamsonsource.com, article by David Rosen on 1.26.2016
2015 The Tennessean, tennessean.com, Embodiment article by Sara Estes on 7.18.2015
2011 The Patch, patch.com, contributed illustration to Einstein article by Steven Fjeldsted on 10.6.2011
Residencies
2020 Discovery Center Artist Resident in Murfreesboro, TN
Internships
2010 Bilingual print and web designer at twocities Gallery in Shanghai, China
Education
2020 Selected for the Nashville Arts and Business Council’s Periscope program for Artists
2009 BFA in Visual Communications at O’More College of Design in Franklin, TN