Anthony Carson Artist Statement

“This collection of work highlights my personal explorations throughout the last year, through different mediums, through joy, through pain, through struggling with notions that I aught to be someplace other than where I am. As I've gone through the waves, one constant remains, the unity of the whole, an inherent belonging to all that is even when I feel like an exile. This gave rise last winter to a personally derived acronym "TINWWU", short for "There Is Nothing Wrong With U", and at the time, I had been drawing these 2x3 earthy, flower-clad beings as a means to adorn whatever I was experiencing, whatever emotion I was feeling, with respect and presence, and not to throw them away if i didn't think one was "good enough". My decision to amass 143 of the TINWWU is simply that the numbers in "143" denote the number of letters in the words
"I Love You", and is a number I catch in auspicious times, often when I might feel at my most exiled or lonesome, like I'm a piece of an intelligent universe that knows how to encourage itself.

My original character "Limwik" is also another prominent figure in this show, whose body is composed of symbols nodding to "masculine" archetypes, a crown (King), a sword (Warrior) a heart (Lover) and an infinity symbol (Magician). He has become a personal totem of my commitment to being a fair king to rule over the kingdom of my being, body, spirit. To love beyond what is common, to apply logic skillfully amidst great chaos, and to honor my personal values (and the values of whom I love) with right action. Put simply, he's a sweetie that won't hesitate to kick some unrighteous monster butt, but knows how to choke down some humble-pie when he makes a mistake. And supposedly he carries a message that everyone but him (and me) can read, we think it has something to do with...ah nevermind.”