MARSHALL CARBEE - NEW EARTH PAINTINGS
PROTECT YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS BIO CRYSTALLINE
PORTRAITS
I make nontraditional portraits of your essence, not a traditional portrait of your likeness. You help me create it. It is a unique co-creation through which you and I express your being at that moment. What will you bring to your unique portrait? I will work with you to make sure that your most special memories are built into your portrait – even if only you and I know exactly what is included. I make the paints. I incorporate materials you help select so the painting becomes a unique expression of your spirit. We might create paint mixed with pigments made from the sand from your favorite beach or even your own tears. The goal is to create a painting that reflects the essence of you; a reflection of you.
ABOVE: SELF-PORTRAIT: MARSHALL CARBEE, bio-paint, beach sand, blueberry pie, almond milk, rain and sea water on paper, 24" x 36"
BELOW: DETAILS from A PORTRAIT of LAUREN FLOTTE: SAILBOAT ON THE GREEN, bio-paint, rain water and India ink on canvas, 54" x 96"
"The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains."
- James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name
PORTRAIT
Marshall Carbee’s art is more than an expression of its time, it is an expression of place and person. He makes contemporary portraits that deepen and expand on the traditional concept of the portrait. Carbee’s portraits provide an encounter between the artist the subject, with the emphasis on the encounter itself, which begins the journey of discovering identity. As part of the process Carbee collects materials that are meaningful to the subject, all of which inform the final, abstract vision of the subject. Some of the materials that are collected are used directly in the paint, and others are incorporated into the Portrait in other ways.
The most radical and inspiring aspect of these portraits is that the “subject” goes beyond an individual, and can be a couple, a team, an organization — even an entire city.
THE CORPORATE PORTRAIT
A corporation is a collection of people and moments and passions. It is the alignment of talent and motivations toward a shared vision. What better way to capture the spirit of an enterprise than a Portrait?
Carbee goes further, daring you to be challenged by the very notion of a Portrait. In the same way that a corporation is made up of people, these same people co-create their Portrait. Each person contributes something - a token, a word, a talisman, a photo — anything that represents them, a part story, from each person. These elements are brought together, with color, on canvas.
The Portrait is additive, positive, celebratory — a fusion of the personal and professional, deepening relationships and shared understanding. The process refines and reflects a shared vision from the inside, so that anyone can encounter and experience it from the outside. When the painting is finished, the subjects, the people that put so much into it, see so much in it.
The Portrait is the signature expression of Carbee's vision of a renewed relationship between the artist, the subject and the painting. He celebrates identity during its creation and in the final artwork, forming a new relationship between art and people that is grounded in art’s timeless roots of beauty and society.
