Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Carter.
Craig, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up on the S.W. side of Houston in an area called Alief there wasn’t a lot of positive options but creating art let me escape my surroundings, only if was for a while.
Watching hip-hop movies such as Beat Street really inspired me to pick up the pencil and start drawing. It was something about the use of the colors and shapes that the graffiti writer named “RAMO” used really intrigued me as a young kid. Over time with a lot of practice, trial and error I perfected my “style”.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh no, it hasn’t been a smooth road especially in Houston, I’ve had doors slammed in my faces over my type of art, not being in the right art circles or just being a young black artist. But I didn’t let that get me down luckily when Social media came on the scene with MySpace (yep that was a long time ago, lol) I was able to link up with other artists and creatives from different cities & countries. My first big break was through an artist from Atlanta named DTM who would host art exhibitions called Art is King and that’s how was able to get my art seen by people in a different region.
Craig C. Tha Artist – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I specialize in creating paintings and murals for people to enjoy.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Do you have enough time .. haha, I have so many proudest moments in my art career. My first time in the newspaper was international ( Bury Free Press, Bury St Edmuds, U.K.).
Now that was an amazing feeling, coming from the inner city to having my artwork seen by people in a different country was beyond my wildest dreams. When I was headed back stateside, my feature was coming out there.
WOW… Another moment was when my artwork was selected for Indio Beer Company’s “Do your Thing!” Ad campaign, that went all throughout the US and Mexico. That really had me speechless to see my artwork expanded so wide. At that time I knew I was supposed to become an artist. The most recent moment is being able to create a beautiful mural on the Whole Food 360 in Independence Heights. I’m really proud of that because of the history behind the city.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://craigctheartist.carbonmade.com
- Instagram: Craigctheartist
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