Featured Artist Spotlight: Carol Ganick
"We are here to find that dimension within ourselves that is deeper than thought." - Eckhart Tolle
Connecticut artist Carol Ganick views artmaking as meditation in action, so it’s no wonder she includes the above quote in her artist statement. Carol paints in various media including watercolor, acrylic, mixed media, and oil. Her work is generally characterized by strong use of gestural brush strokes.
Carol’s natural curiosity and love of discovery enables her to focus on the creative process rather than the final product. She gets restless without change. A common trend amongst artists is they will have not one or two, but many different projects going on at once. Carol believes that discovery is more important than capturing an image, which explains her love of abstraction and experimental processes. “If someone is following some sort of creative direction, whether it be painting, writing…they have to find their own voice,” she comments. “I think in painting, it’s your own approach – your own being in terms of what you respond to, that makes you feel motivated.”
Carol uses this approach not only for her own work, but with her students as well. She always encourages her students at West Hartford Art League to be brave, and to “be careless (or carefree) when putting paint to paper.” She says this mindset allows for more discovery. For Carol, teaching provides the incentive to find different ways to approach a material, subject, or medium. “You learn more from your mistakes than from doing things correctly every time.”
This former human resources professional has found a new love in teaching and creating art, having taught at the Art League after a recommendation from the late artist and educator Paul Zimmerman. In her second career, Carol circles back to the importance of art education. “If you have a good teacher who can inspire, it is priceless.”
Carol Ganick is one of the Arts Council’s 2019 Featured Artists. Each year, the Arts Council picks a work from two local visual artists to create prints that given to supporters of our United Arts Campaign. Click here to learn more, or find how you can receive a copy of Ganick’s Connecticut Marshes below.
- Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC