About the Artist

Art is a visceral endeavor for me. At the end of the day, I want it beneath my fingernails. While computers are a great artist’s tool (and I do occasionally employ them) I value technical skill and refuse to cut corners in my process. Almost all of my work is done in an Old Masters palette, and I begin by blocking out all my paintings in raw umber and ultramarine blue. I rarely come up with an overarching concept for my work before I begin. At best, I am struck by a germ of an idea, which is then informed by my instincts and subconscious. My process is intuitive and I allow the layers of light and shadow I apply to the canvas to guide me.

My body of work was once jokingly referred to as “Dali goes to the supermarket,” which is actually quite apt. I’m interested in bodies, self-perception and the way we fetishize our inner appetites. The beauty in my work comes from the tension between the familiar shapes of my subjects paired with their grotesque unfamiliarity. The tones of flesh, tissue and tendon coil around my imagery.

Carly Bodnar is a visual artist primarily working in oil on canvas. Originally from Eugene and Portland, Oregon, her studio now resides in New York City.

She can be reached at carly.bodnar@gmail.com

About this page

The Flickr slideshow on main page appears courtesy of Flickrshow. Special thanks to Ben Sekulowicz-Barclay/Beseku for implementation support, and for creating an application that's eminently cleaner and more stylable than Flickr's own.

A special thank you also goes to Stephen Moles for helping me navigate the treacherous jungles of copywriting.

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