Carrie Webster

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.

That myth is more potent than history.

That dreams are more powerful than facts.

That hope always triumphs over experience.That laughter is the only cure for grief.

And I believe that love is stronger than death." Robert Fulghum

My Photography

All the photographic montages are all composed of images that I have taken myself, and then layered and manipulated in Photoshop to create the end results shown on my website. My camera is a Canon 5D mark II, and my favourite lenses are my Tamron 90mm Macro lens for close up work, and my Canon 17-40mm zoom lens for just about everything else!

My Story

I can’t ever imagine a world without creativity and I don’t feel truly happy unless I am creating. It feeds my soul. I create to be at peace with myself. I create to untangle my mind. I create to breathe life into ideas. I create to feel authentic. I create for the process of creating. I create to give. I create because I am.

When my inner artist was re-born after many years of disconnect, I thought my path was clear. It made sense to focus on creating something commercial so that I could create and earn a living from my passion. However, I realised after a few unsatisfying ventures that I was focusing too much on the commercial aspect and I was struggling to connect with my authentic inner artist. My turning point came when I decided to ignore the commercial aspect and just simply create. For me.  And it worked. Inspiration and ideas have come flooding in and I really feel as though I am finally following the path to my creative truth.

My Creative Process

The creative process I follow is simple in its methodology, but often complex in its execution. Inspiration will germinate the seed for an idea that manifests as a vision or picture in my mind. As the idea grows and expands, I explore and source the tools I will need to convert the vision into something physical. There is always a list of object and images that I will need to find, borrow, make or photograph. Once I have all the ingredients (which may take weeks or months to gather), I can then begin the process of digitizing them as photographic images and then building the layers of the image using Photoshop. The entire end-to-end process of creating one image could span over  months, or it I could create one image in a day.

My current work has evolved through many years of experimenting with a multitude of mediums, tools and themes. I have, over the years and at various times, expressed myself through photography, lino prints, drawing, painting, pastels and digital painting. I don't believe you can define creativity through any one medium and exploration is the key.

With all my work, my yearning to recreate surreal and dream like states is a reflection of my own desire to escape from reality. We all have limitations as individuals in our ability to change the outside world, however, I have complete freedom to create my internal world. The external world can be a very dark place and every day as I watch global events unfold, I am filled with disbelief, sadness and fear for the kind of world our children are inheriting. Art enables me to escape from this, to find humour in myself and my surroundings, and just to momentarily forget. If my art can create these kind of moments for someone else, I am humbled.

Thank you for being a part of my secret world....