South Jersey Artist Studio Tour - Danielle Cartier
Can you tell us about your practice?
Cartier: My practice is a lot of different things. It’s of course my work, which I haven’t done too much of recently because I’ve been busy with other parts of my practice. My own work, teaching is a big part of my practice, doing public art is another huge part of my practice and running the gallery here which is something that is a huge chunk of what I do which is why I haven’t had as much time to do my own work because that is the thing that happens to fall to the wayside. Right now, I’ve been really thinking about my own work so when I do get the chance to come back and have time to make it, its going to be amazing because it's been ruminating and stewing for a while. So I’m excited about that. Those are the main components of my practice.
So for my public art pieces, I do a lot of mural, so one of the mediums I always use is exterior house paint from Home Depot. That is my go to mural paint. Lot of people like to know what mural artists use to paint with. I use exterior house paint usually, it is the most cost effective thing. Right here behind me I have some mural cloth, this is for signage outside that I am working on for the front of the gallery. Other materials I often work with are collage materials, my own work is really based in mixed media painting which means I add all different sorts of materials to paintings which might mean fiber, found materials, collage materials, digital materials of course paints and other drawing materials and sometimes printmaking.
I love old signage. This is something that I kind of fell in love with before I came to the east coast. I love texts and the idea of texts and image together. I think that it speaks to the way I always learned through images and words so I think that is something I like to reproduce in a really basic kind of childish how you learn that way. It speaks to me. I think I like to go to different places and find things and different signs and traveling and moving has always been a big part of my life. I like to talk about place. I think place is really important so I always search for contemporary landscapes, especially in Jersey or wherever I am at. I think signage is just the best. Even those cranes, I don’t know.
I did this project I've never done before with my students this semester and it was all about signs but where we started from was a story. So I had them write a story about their life and just like their life story like a diary entry. Something for them and then out of the story they had to like choose the twenty most important sentences or whatever that was and out of those sentences they had to make a three word mini sentence. And then we made twenty drawings based on those three words so it was like this really coded sign process. So many things happened I didn’t expect that would go with a new project and whatnot. I just think at the end of the day art is about communication, how we communicate and relate to each other and just kind of feeling a oneness and that is how I connect to other people and how I feel connected to the world. I love experiencing life so I think that is a good way to touch base with what you are interested in and the world around you.
Can you talk about your journey into art?
Cartier: I was not great in school. So I think the way I learned, when I think about it now, thirty years later I learned through drawing and images. I did not have strong reading skills at all and I struggled with that. I remember struggling with it so I think that was something I always gravitated to and I knew that about myself. Even in high school, you are sitting there, and think, I have to do something I love and something I feel passionate about. When you are sixteen, like I was a bad kid, this was the only thing that I could see myself doing. I didn’t even know what that meant, like being an artist, my parents weren’t artists, I had no idea what that meant so for a long time I went to college immediately after and just started art at the local college in California. I am from the West Coast and I studied art in undergrad, drawing and painting mostly, printmaking and just kind of did all of that. That was the next step, I didn’t know what they meant. I never considered not going to college. I went to an all girls Catholic high school so going to college, whatever. Then from there, I had a great experience.
When you are an artist, you do things, I did things I saw other artists I admire do. That ended up going to grad school. I had no idea what that was, but then it was okay. These other older students who I looked up to at Sonoma state getting ready to go to college and get their MFA and going to the next level and my teachers were talking to them. Your BFA. Stay for another year to get your BFA. Get your portfolio tight so that you can go to grad school so that’s what I did. I had a big bump in the road though I got in trouble with the law and couldn’t leave the state for a year so I had to apply to grad school again. It sucked! But sometimes things that suck end up being better. I decided I wanted to go to the east coast and wanted to come to philly. I knew I wanted to come to the Philadelphia area because of the Philadelphia mural arts program. And then just based upon the schools like PAFA and Penn. So I decided to go to UPenn. That was two years of my life, great experience. When I was in school I always thought I'd move back to the West Coast. After my first year in grad school, my mind was still in the West Coast and by the second year I was like okay im here I might as well start making work about this new fucking life I’m in so now I've been out here for almost ten years. And life has never bought me anywhere else.
So after grad school, I had no money, I had no place to live and I couldn't move back to California. I got a residency in Camden and the deal was I got a free studio and a free place to live! Whoo! Whoo! Like how could I not do that? For a year. And all I had to do was make free public art in Camden. This is great! This is excellent! So I did and it was a new space coming up, which is Camden Fireworks. I ended up staying there for four more years after, paying rent for the studio or whatever. That period, I moved to Jersey from Philly. For a long time, I was living in Philly and coming to Jersey because my studio was here. It was so weird, it was weird and I finally moved to Jersey.
My work is so much about place because I do public art. I tried to focus on the public art in my community or more locally. It’s more fun that way. Then I was in Camden for five years, my studio was there, then the pandemic happened and I started to outgrow the space too. I want to do my own thing more. So that’s what ended up happening. Then this was an artist gallery and studio before. This building. It is just something that was a dream that I never thought would happen. Things kind of come together slowly and unexpectedly over time. Then also, financial support from people I love too. To be able to do this. Believing in you and all that kind of stuff.
Why is art important to you?
Cartier: Oh God! Why is art important to me because I can connect with other people that way. I feel most human when I make. I feel most connected to myself too. When I am making something, sometimes it can be I’m so in what I am doing but it is very positive. I think it feels good, you know, it is important to me because it makes me feel good. And honestly it makes everyone feel good so I think . There’s so many fun facets to it. Keeping people interested too, is part of the responsibility a little bit.
What are you currently working on?
Cartier: I’ve been working on these signs for the front of the gallery. I’m working on the Holiday Show we are going to be having in December. And honestly 2024, starting to think about 2024 is gonna be here! All of the new things I’m looking forward to a little bit of a hibernation period to do my own work a little but, I’m not going to lie. But I think that the new year is always a good thing. We are all ready for it by the end.
South Jersey Artist Studio Tour (SJAST) is a pilot project created by the South Jersey Cultural Alliance and funded by the Humanities Lab Project through the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. The South Jersey Cultural Alliance would like to thank the artist, Danielle Cartier.
