Carly Means
ABOUT CARLY MEANS
Biography
Carly Means is a 20-year-old artist from Kansas City, Missouri. She is currently studying pre-art therapy at Lindenwood University and enjoys all art mediums including charcoal, ink, and acrylic paint. She focuses primarily on communicating messages through impressionistic and surreal styles.
DIGITAL WORK
All work is done on the iPad using Procreate and an Apple Pencil.
TRADITIONAL WORK
PORTRAIT WORK
Portraits I've done over the past several years. Portraits are done using either gouache or acrylic paint.
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Art can range from a number of different meanings to everyone. I, Carly Jane Means, not being an exception from those feelings. I have found to discover that the most significant meaning behind art for me is growth. Growth is a significant variable in every artist that I believe can’t be ignored.
Art is something I have known my entire life. My great grandmother was an artist herself and I believe I received those genes from her. Not the whole art making process alone, but the ability to appreciate art and the work that goes into every piece of art. The people I’m surrounded with everyday inspire me to push myself, not just as an artist but as a person as well. My motivation is my own happiness. I believe that art is one of the very few things I’m good at. I want a purpose in life, and I believe that art just might be my purpose.
I have been doing art on and off ever since I first learned to hold a crayon when I was three years old, and I figured out that art is what I wanted to do in sixth grade when I drew a horse in math class and everyone, including my teacher, was gathering around me to see. I have an anxiety disorder. Art is an outlet that I have found to be a gamble. Unfortunately, I have had panic attacks when I’m afraid that I made that line of paint too thick or when I couldn’t get that eye to look like the other eye, but that anxiety is the anxiety I want to feel. That payoff you receive when you finally finished that piece you put your blood, sweat, tears, and anxiety worth it. When somebody sees your art and you’re able to see the astonishment on their face, when they’re looking at each and every detail and taking everything in, gives me a sense of self-fulfillment that I have never found to achieve from competing in any sport or solving any math equation.
I have no doubt that I am a good artist, but I still have a long way to go, and I have been doing art long enough to know my growth as an artist will never come to stop. As much as I love and appreciate art there is always that ‘what if’, ‘What if that person doesn’t like it.’ ‘What if that person notices this really small error I made over here.’ ‘What if that person is just distraught at my work.’, but I want to push myself. I want to learn and I’m tired of letting my anxiety control my happiness and that self-fulfillment I chase after, the whole reason that I bother with art in the first place