Today we’d like to introduce you to Carly Weaver.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve been painting for over twenty years. I painted in my bedroom for years in Boston. I upgraded to a basement hatch door studio where I was trapped in frequently by some object wheeled over the door. I also had a studio in a foam factory. I am now happily painting in a studio I built in my backyard in Austin.
I received a BFA from James Madison University and graduate school at Texas Tech University to become certified as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist (someone that teaches blind people how to use a cane and cross streets).
I recently left my day job to live the dream!
Please tell us about your art.
“Hey, you’re the Grackle Lady!” I decided to embrace this title much like I embraced the notorious pests of Austin and decided to paint the grackles. Coming from the east coast these birds were very unique to me and pesky! They ate all my dogs’ food, pooped all over my deck and made endless racket. The fake owl couldn’t deter them nor any other effort so I decided to recreate their images in oil paint on small wooden panels. I started with a dozen perched on my backyard fence. This seemed to do the trick and the grackles disappeared…at least temporarily. I also realized there was an underground grackle fan club who helped support my painting inspiration. After art fairs, studio tours, retail and gallery support, I’ve tripled my original dozen paintings about 5 times over. I take grackle commissions, sell prints on wood blocks and most recently have painted giant grackles at 5 feet x 5 feet. I’m always looking for new grackles poses. I am lucky now that people generously send me photos now and I don’t have to try take the shot myself!.
This love/hate relationship is common among the grackle fans. Their iridescent colorings and yellow eyes are striking, their personalities are inquisitive, comical and aggressive, and their mating rituals are so entertaining. Most people find a fondness for them because they are part of our landscape in Austin for sure but also in San Antonio and Houston. Grackles are making all the racket when you wake up, they’ve pooped on your car before you get to work, they’re trying to steal your fries at lunch, at HEB grocery shopping and lining the telephone wires at night on your drive home from work. You have to find something to love about them because they aren’t going away.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Whew! That sounds like a personal question. For me technology because I hate it! But with it you can reach a wider audience, do more self-promotion and art management and sell! We don’t have to be self-deprecating and poor.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I sell locally in Austin at Parts and Labour, A Town, The Burlap Bag, and Austin Art Garage. I sell online via carlyweaver.com I frequent the art fairs like Houston Heartmade in April 2018, King William Fair in SA, and Blue Genie Art Bazaar and East Austin Studio Tour in Austin. I most recently began working with Wonderwall Studio publishing and design. In August I am headed to NYC for NYnow trade show and am taking my artwork and a new plant-based wood design business, hold on to Your Plants, to make new national stockists.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2606 E 2nd St
- Website: carlyweaver.com
- Phone: 512 373 6308
- Email: info@carlyweaver.com
- Instagram: carlyweaverart
Image Credit:
Carly Weaver
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