We were lucky to catch up with Landon Carter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Landon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Everything you want is on the other side of fear. The best thing you can do for yourself is to figure out what you are truly convinced of, what is the reason you do things? Professor of Psychology, Linda Skitka said that Convictions are attitudes that are treated more like possessions or aspects of the self.” In other words, convictions are not just mere opinions, but they are firm beliefs that define who we are. Defining yourself is a messy and difficult process. It is the same with creating artwork. You will fail, you will do the wrong thing, but if you understand why you are embarking on this journey, that motivation will carry you through.

7 years ago I was a freshman cadet at a military college suffering from major depression, anxiety and cptsd. I wanted nothing more than to just relax and create artwork and music, but my environment supported just about the opposite of that. There were people that would come into my barracks to throw my paintings on the ground and say mean things like “you’ll never make any money off that” or just calling it meaningless. Then a chance to escape came. I got an offer from my Spanish professor to study in Barcelona with an independent program. I immediately took it. There I was encouraged for the first time to create. I painted every day, I would write songs with my neighbors and we would go perform them on the streets and at bars in the city, and I began to shed the feelings of hesitation towards my purpose which is to create.

I came back 6 months later and dropped out of the military college. I was abandoned by my friends and family after this. I had about $300 to my name and worked 2 jobs as a dishwasher and bell boy. I had nothing, but I was free to do what I wanted. At this point I still wasn’t selling my work, but I was following my purpose. When you first start to turn on the faucet of creativity, it’s going to spit out a bunch of dirty water (bad ideas) but as you keep working on yourself and your work, you will find what you are truly convicted in and that faucet starts to spill out clean water (good ideas).

Since that transition I have grown and accomplished so much. I have sold more than 200 paintings, exhibited in galleries across the east coast, worked with major brands, travelled across the US developing my style, and finally landed in NYC where I am trying to solidify my career in fine art. It would not have been possible without going through the process to define who am am and why I do the things I do.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. My medium is a combination of painting and sculpture where I paint on resin, building up 3D images over multiple layers. This combination of unorthodox techniques creates artworks with incredible depth and non traditional form. My work explores the interconnectedness of life and personal expression with the surreal manipulation of forms of nature and humanity.

Revisiting ideas that have interested, frightened, and intrigued me since I was a child, in my work I try to relate the impalpable grandeur of imagination. At the center of my work lies a drive to encourage connection between individuals as well as a contemporary aesthetic that challenges the boundaries between the physical and ethereal.’

I am always excited for the future of my work because not only are there infinite subject matters to explore, but there are also infinite shapes and forms to explore as well.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I began making my layered resin paintings at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I had been using resin to varnish paintings for a while by then, but hadn’t really given much thought to the sculptural aspect of it. One time I messed up the varnishing process and wondered if I could pour another coat over the top to fix it. That worked out great which got me thinking, “Could I paint on the resin and bring the painting off the canvas a little bit?” Then I thought that since I prefer to paint on smooth surfaces couldn’t I just forgo the canvas entirely and have resin be the medium I paint on… I made a small 3″x3″x1″ prototype of a scene of koi 2 koi fish and it worked out just as I had imagined in my head. I showed this to a successful artist, Katie White, who told me to make a lot more of them. So I made a cohesive series of 10 5″x5″x2″ pieces comprising mostly of scenes of fish and they sold out within a week of me releasing them. I also got several commissions from those collectors and their friends as well. That granted me the capital to really develop this idea and grow it into what it has become now. I ended up keeping one of the original pieces from that series and it is so cool to see how much this idea has grown when comparing that piece to the ones that I create now.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of my favorite pieces I have ever made was the piano bench I made “infinite object,” was also the most difficult piece I have ever made… This project took more than 4 months for me to complete as I was managing all the setbacks, working for another artist, and doing school full time. More than twice during the creation of this piece, the complicated mold I had made for the bench leaked, wasting $1000’s of resin. The last leak was the worst however; the resin requires certain temperature conditions for curing in order to prevent it from overheating and because it was hot in my unairconditioned studio, I had to bring the mold into my apartment bathroom where I could put in a portable air conditioning unit in to bring down the temperature. I really thought that I had done everything correct, but after pouring in about half of the resin it began to seep out from the bottom of the mold releasing about 10 gallons of resin all over my tiny bathroom’s tile floor. It started to go out of the bathroom down the hall and seeping into the carpet flooring and more. It took several days to clean up and repair the apartment and set me back about a month in my production schedule. Needless to say I was pretty devastated and really doubted my ability to finish the piece. But after a few good phone calls for advice from fellow artists and my supporters I kept going. I finished the piece a month and a half later, delivered it and it is one of my proudest accomplishments in my life. You are going to fail a lot as an artist, but those failures are there to teach you and guide you along in the process of defining what your art is. I was really sad when I had these failures during the creation of this piece, but they taught me integral lessons and techniques that I still continue to use in my practice every day.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LandonCarterArt.com
• Instagram: @LandonCarterArt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/landoncarterart
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LandonCarterArt