Cantilevered #53 — Teetering

NANETTE CARTER | MAR 2022 | ISSUE 14

Working with intangible ideas around contemporary issues has been my motivating force. Reading the news about different developments taking place around the world has turned me into a chronicler of our time. How to present these ideas in an abstract vocabulary of form, line, color and texture is the quest. These are the challenges and creative instinct that intrigue me most.

In the past two years, I’ve been working on three series simultaneously that reflect the zeitgeist of our time. They include Cantilevered, The Weight, and Afro Sentinels. With advancements in technology, the pervasive use of social media, Donald Trump, and social injustices seen around the world there is much to respond to. All of this while balancing responsibilities to family, our jobs and friends. Welcome to the twenty-first century. This lays heavy on us, figuratively acting as a great weight on our shoulders, hence the title, The Weight.

In the series Cantilevered, the act of balancing the bombardment of information and responsibilities while deciding what is actually of great import is a harrowing act. Social media, the global pandemic, and global warming are issues of concern while living in the 21st Century. “Cantilevered” is an architectural term where a building is anchored at one end and balancing a structure that extends out horizontally. The structure then becomes a metaphor for our lives. With some of the works in this series the shapes appear to be teetering and falling off the structural plinth, mimicking the idea of letting go or prioritizing in hopes of gaining some normalcy or balance during these anxiety-driven times.

Nanette Carter was born in Columbus, Ohio and spent most of her childhood in Montclair, New Jersey. Her first art classes started at the age of six at the Montclair Art Museum. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio majoring in Studio Art and Art History. During her junior year she studied abroad in Perugia, Italy, traveling through Europe and North Africa. Nanette received her MFA at Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, NY. Today she is a retired tenured Associate Professor from Pratt, where she taught Drawing/Mixed Media classes for 20 years.

Over the years, Nanette has received several grants which include the New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation and most recently the Anonymous Was a Woman Award. Her work is in numerous collections across the country. Nanette has had international solo exhibitions in Japan, Syria, Cuba, and Italy.

Working with intangible ideas around contemporary issues has been Nanette’s modus operandi for many years. How to present these ideas in an abstract vocabulary of form, texture, line and color has piqued her imagination for decades. Today her tools are oils and Mylar. Nanette’s goals are to present the mysteries of nature and human nature while she hopes to achieve the maximum luminosity, transparency and density in her works.