More Information about Carol Carpentieri​:
Excerpt from ​Art From The Heart Profile
September 16, 2010 Greenwich Post Arts and Leisure Section by ​Adele Annesi

 

In an era of uninspiring images, Carol Carpentieri’s art exudes emotion and life. From her choice of color to her Picasso-inspired style is a sense of the familiar, vigor and adventure that suffuse her retrospective at Pound Ridge Library through Sept. 25.

A Brooklyn, N.Y. native, Ms. Carpentieri has been creating since youth. “I so enjoy the process,” she said. What began with a child’s shimsy has found fruition in a sophisticated yet approachable style of captivating images in mixed media — watercolor, acrylic and oil, pencil and ink. Largely self-taught, Ms. Carpentieri credits her freedom with empowering her to let go. “Being an only child helped — no one was around to say don’t do that,” she said.

Not one to lead a linear life, Ms. Carpentieri blends informal and traditional study with personal travel and experience. She studied at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where she was most influenced by classes in rendering. “I was working with my husband in the floor-covering business, and [the class] showed us how to work up a room, the placement of things.”

She has also taught art at West Patent Elementary in Bedford Hills, N.Y. and is on the board of the Katonah Museum Artists’ Association (KMAA) and a member of the West Side Arts Coalition in New York. Her exhibitions include the Katonah Museum of Art and the KMAA at the Sculpture Barn. Colleague and friend Dyan Rosenberg describes her work as “original emotional, full of color and feeling, lyrical — it tells a story.”

Ms. Carpentieri ability to tell a story in images is stimulated and nurtured by travel. “My favorite place is Provence, the way the color comes down at certain time of day and in the evening, in the summer when the lavender is out.” Influenced by Picasso and by the Russian painter and decorative artist Wassily Kandinsky, Ms. Carpentieri drew inspiration from visiting the places where these artists created. “I’ve been to both their houses and the Picasso museum in Paris. It was a thrill to see what inspired them.”...

Besides artwork and jewelry making, Ms. Carpentieri is a sculptor. She began working in this field only a few years ago. “At first I was timid, but a friend showed me how, so I held the chisel and just went for it,” she said. It’s an art form whose unpredictability she embraces. “Ican work for hours and don’t always know what’s in the stone. Sometimes it breaks, but that just means there was something in the wanting to get out.”

Ms. Carpentieri also keeps journals – in written form, but filled with watercolor. “Someday I would like to do something that combines writing and drawings.” she said. She’s also creating a Japanese garden and is entering a new phase of life that echoes the creative license she had early on. “When I retired from my husband’s flooring business, I went full force into the arts. I realize time is short, and you want to make the most of the time you have.”....