Check out Darel Carey’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Darel Carey.

Darel, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Since I was very young, I had a knack for drawing. It took a while, but I eventually realized it came easier to me than others. As a kid, I liked to draw birds of prey, robots, aliens. I used to love drawing Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit, and the Terminator model 101.

In my adolescence, I got into graffiti, creating wild-style pieces, cartoony characters, and later 3D letters, which looked ‘real,’ and I excelled at. Aside from that, I used to doodle all the time in all my papers, homework, and tests. Sometimes characters, sometimes lettering, sometimes just a bunch of lines. I always wanted the thinnest ink pen, not a ballpoint because they bleed. I enjoyed trying to draw lines as close together as possible without making them touch. Although I liked to draw, I was never encouraged to pursue art as a ‘viable’ career, so it was always something I did on the side. In high school, I created logos and shirt designs for the student council, AVID, and several sports teams. After high school, I dabbled a little bit in tattooing for about a year, but that is a long story, one for another time.

In December 2000, I enlisted in the Air Force as a Russian Language Analyst. I did that for 6 years, then retrained into Chinese, working in the intelligence field for another 6 years. Throughout this time, I designed some logos and shirts and painted a few murals, but it was always on the side. I began to feel that I needed to pursue art and would regret it if I didn’t try. After 11 years in the military, I decided to separate and try out an art career. Even if I failed, I would at least have tried. In 2012 I got out of the military, moved from Maryland, where I was stationed at the time, to Los Angeles, and enrolled at Otis College of Art and Design in the Fine Arts Department. During that time, I was kind of all over the place, trying different things, trying to find myself and find out what I really wanted to do with art. While at Otis, I simultaneously started a clothing brand, LiHai, printing my designs on shirts and hats. It was based on my past in hip-hop: graffiti, b-boying, and DJing.

On weekdays I would learn about the foundations of art, and how to use oil paint, and on the weekends I would be vending at b-boy competitions, selling my shirts. It was a hectic time, and in hindsight, I think I shouldn’t have tried to do so much at once. But then again, I wouldn’t be where I am or learned what I have if I didn’t take the path I took, so it’s difficult to say what I should or shouldn’t have done. Even within the Fine Arts Department, I was all over the place. I was painting realism, constructing abstract, geometric sculptures, exploring illusions, drawing a lot of lines, and more. I was exploring, trying to find myself. During my senior year, we had a group show where we decided to grid the entire gallery space with black tape, and show each of our art pieces in/on the grid. I liked the busy work and did most of the gridding. While doing so, I realized the endless possibilities with tape.

Instead of using tape to make a background for my art, I could use the tape as my art itself. I could go on the floor, on the ceiling, on all kinds of surfaces, and simply take it off when I was done. This would allow me to install in spaces I otherwise couldn’t, and to scale up pretty easily. I installed a cube-like portal in the corner of the gallery over the grid, which had a sweet-spot vantage point, and created a dynamic experience when the viewer walked around the installation. For my senior show at Otis, instead of creating illusory cubes with tape, I combined my interests of geometric minimalism, perception, illusion, and lines, and juxtaposed several lines going from one wall to another to the floor, ultimately creating the perception of volume in mid-air from a particular vantage point. That was my first dimensionalized installation, called topographical space.

After graduation, I was in a few groups shows with fellow Otis alumni, and I had my second year at Inglewood Open Studios, an annual event where local artists open up their studios to the public. Due to the temporary nature of these tape installations, I performed them live at my events and documented them with time-lapse videos. I thought these time-lapses would be the best way for the ephemeral installations to live on. The next year was pretty slow, and I struggled to try to figure out what I was going to do with my art career, with my life. My wife, Priscilla, is a registered nurse, and she was working hard, and when I graduated from Otis, she began a graduate program to be a nurse practitioner. So she was working and going to school, while I was trying to find work as an artist, a graphic designer, and a photographer. I would get a commission here and there, but nothing enough to sustain a living. At this time, she was bearing the brunt of keeping us afloat and I was feeling a lot of pressure to take on more work.

That year we took a short trip to Sicily to visit friends, and while we were there, in Catania, there was an MC Escher exhibition. I don’t follow many artists, and a lot of my art comes from internal inspirations, but MC Escher is easily my favorite artist. When I was young and first saw his work I was fascinated by his impossible geometric shapes and illusions, and the intricacy of his tessellations. Seeing this exhibition in Catania was exactly what I needed to push forward with my art. I was inspired by Escher’s history and the amount of art he created throughout his life. This reminded me that it was possible to make a living doing what you love, and it reinvigorated me to keep creating.

When I returned home, I was armed with a new energy. I created more installations at my home and at my studio and time-lapsed them. I was determined to consistently make work.. after all, that’s why I left my military career. I wanted to pursue art as a career. I didn’t want to just find another 9-5 job and create art as a hobby. I revamped the way that I worked, pushing myself to do more, and to be consistent.

That consistency and drive paid off. People started paying more attention to what I was doing, and I got more commissions. When I got more commissions I got more attention, which got me more commissions. And the rest is history. I’ve been very busy creating and evolving my craft. I am extremely grateful and fortunate that I am able to do what I love and make a living.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
As I described above, my art deals with perception. I am interested in the psychology of seeing. How our eyes evolved and how our brains interpret what our eyes see. I have a minimalistic style of juxtaposing lines to create perceived volume. Using two dimensions to create the perception of three.

I am influenced by the patterns of nature. My work is very organic and naturally flowing, and I see this time and again throughout nature. Tree trunk rings, spider webs, large geological formations like the Grand Canyon with striated layers of rock, ocean waves, lines in leaves, schools of fish, starlings flying in murmurations, cloud formations.. There are so many examples.

Much of my work, I must admit, has come from an internal place. I didn’t start creating certain art because I was inspired by other artists, I was inspired by other artists because their art and ideas were similar to mine. Regarding my line work and optical art specifically, I was introduced to artists like Carl Krull, Sol LeWitt, and Bridget Riley while attending Otis. Professors saw my work and thought that I would be interested in these artists.

I want my work to influence others in the same way Escher influenced me. I want to make people think about what is real in the world and how much our subjectivity can skew our perception of the world. When people think about these ideas, they may spawn new ideas based on similar concepts: perception, perspective, nature, psychology, and illusion. I hope to inspire others to pursue these concepts in any realm, not just in the realm of art.. in the realm of our culture and society, in a natural, evolving way, the way that I was influenced and the way that I came to create.

How can artists connect with other artists?
Yes, I can relate. A lot of what being an artist is and being a creative involves working by yourself, solo time to meditate and think about your ideas, and self-reflection.

Artists looking to connect with other artists can go to gallery opening receptions, or join a course or session that falls within their interests, like a one-day painting class, or a monthly life-drawing session. Or maybe joining a Facebook group or something similar.

Another way to meet other artists and potential customers or like-minded people is to go to art festivals or monthly art walks, as a viewer or by getting a space yourself to show others your art.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
As of right now, Summer 2018, people can see my work in-person at the Torrance Art Museum, where I have a hallway dimensionalized, and the Museum of Selfies in Glendale, where I have an entire room dimensionalized.

I am currently working on several new projects, including more installation, murals, and works of art to sell. I would say the best way to support my work would be to follow me on Instagram to stay updated on what I’m doing next.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.darelcarey.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darelcarey/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darel.carey
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darelcarey

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.