Today we’d like to introduce you to Cara Corder.
Cara, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I began my art career in Milwaukee, WI. I started showing work early on at small local galleries while I was in college at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design where I studied printmaking.
I figured I wanted to take advantage of their amazing facilities but quickly learned that printmaking wasn’t what I wanted to do. I grew tired of the process that so many people drool over. Don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate the science and technique behind it, but I’m too ADD to look at the same image over and over again only to come out with a bunch of images of said image. Whew. I’m more of an instant gratification kind of gal. Which is funny that I ended up falling in love with animation – the most anti-instant gratification of the art forms.
I regret only taking one class on the subject, but Intro to 2-D Hand Drawn Animation was all I needed/had to get me going on some of the dumbest-er… I mean finest amateur animations this side of the Mississippi. I guess I loved seeing my characters come to life.
Although I graduated in 2013 with a Bachelor in Fine Arts, my work as a professional artist fits more of an illustrative genre (with some fine art on the side).
Around 2014 is when I started posting my work on my Instagram, and boy, did I post. And that was the key! Persistence. Eventually, my audience grew from 900 some followers into 3,000+ followers. This allowed me to sell my work and get commissions on a regular basis.
2014 was also the year I started working for a skateboard company called The Friend Ship Skateboards. I designed art for boards among many other duties. This allowed me to pick up and move from Milwaukee, WI. to lovely Los Angeles, CA in 2016. I worked out of LA for two years working both freelance and retail (at Blick Art Materials in Pasadena) and loved it.
Unfortunately, life threw me a curve-ball and in October of 2018, I had to abruptly move back to Wisconsin.
It wasn’t until almost year later exactly, when I would return for my LA debut. I was contacted by Amanda Brown – brilliant Curator, Art Dealer, and owner of The Resin Collection. She had seen the work hanging in Blick that I had to leave behind and fell in love. It only took a few e-mails and FaceTime meetings to figure out that we needed to do a show together and only a few months later, “A Cool Art Show” happened at Hyperion Arts in Silverlake.
That brings me to the present. Back in Wisconsin yet still working out of LA trying to figure out my next move.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh, I took about the bumpiest road I could take.
In 2013, I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 and Psychosis after what turned out to be my first hyper-manic and psychotic episode. This was right after I graduated college. I was then hospitalized and fell into a pit of depression. What goes up must come down, you know. I felt stuck and defeated for a very long time, but once I started recovering, I started drawing again… and once I started drawing again, no one could stop me. Or so I thought.
I was stable for a solid five years. And although Bipolar doesn’t ever go away, I was able to maintain my mental health through medication, structure, and art.
Flash forward to 2018: The year everything hit the fan and mania hit me again… Hard. If you are not familiar with the effects of mania on the human brain, I’d advise you to look that one up. Very interesting, very scary. The reasons were plenty (i.e., medication mix up, deaths in the family, breaking up from a five years partnership, having to quit my jobs and abruptly move home due to all of these events taking place….).
Anyways, I got back to Wisconsin and almost immediately was hospitalized for over 30 days in the institution. I spent months in intensive therapy and like I said earlier, what goes up must come down. Well, I was down for almost eight months. The depression was intense but not as intense as my will to come back.
I slowly started drawing again… and then I started moving again. Boy, if anyone is going through depression right now, my advice would be to start moving because I quickly got my confidence and momentum back.
I was back.
Believe it or not, this was a “long story short” kind of deal.
Please tell us more about your art.
I am pretty much a freelance artist doing whatever I can to make it doing what I love to do. ‘Like all great artists, I’ll do anything for money” – I’m sorry, I randomly heard that line on an episode of “Malcolm in the Middle” recently and it made me laugh. It’s pretty accurate, though. I’m a jack of all trades when it comes to style and medium.
I specialize in humorous quick illustrations. My main goal is to make people laugh while simultaneously having something interesting and beautiful to look at. I’m known for my somewhat crude renderings of dogs, silly television references, hot ladies with bags on their heads, and my skateboard designs might still have a cult following.
I think what sets me apart from the other LA artists is about 2,500 miles or so. My body may be currently in Milwaukee, WI but my he(art) and soul is still grinding in LA.
Did I mention I like puns?
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I would say, a sense of humor and a willingness and dedication to work and produce would be the most important qualities.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.caracorder.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/caracorder
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/caracorderart
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