Carrie Wolfe is an undergraduate student, in Community Based Art Education and Activism at The Ohio State University. Growing up in a creative yet lower income household, Carrie found herself shadowing her mother’s talent of making something out of nothing and her father’s gift of advocacy. Carrie’s life has been full of many experiences, both negative and positive and the story telling aspect of her work allows her to identify and create dialogue with many individuals. Carrie has found that art can be used as a tool to unify communities.

Personal Philosophy of Art

Art is a tool, which I use to wrestle through and make meaning of the experiences within my life. It illuminates, the pain, confusion, distortion and irregularity of my thoughts. Exposing these thoughts then in turn allows for me to make meaning out of them, opening my heart for further healing. The process of art making, benefits me greatly, but it is always with the ultimate goal in mind that this work will be shown in public. The moments of isolation within the art process at times drive me crazy but knowing the end goal involves those outside of myself helps me to work through those times. The goal is that these pieces would create dialogue, expose and cause viewers to question their secrets and possibly deceptive thinking. Knowing ahead of time that my art will be in public, I constantly need to question myself, reminding myself that honesty is the only way and that there is no room for self-protection or secrecy. The process of art making for me has become a method of fighting against my own self-protection.

Transformational authenticity is not found in secrecy, isolation and self-preservation, authenticity cannot just be taught without the message being lived through the teacher. Years of my life have been lost through secrecy to the point that, the real truth seemed almost impossible to uncover. A person of authenticity, one that lives the life they promote and yet willing to admit their imperfections is a person I desired to become. Art became a window to the outside world, haling to the viewers:

“Look, you are not alone!!! You are not hopeless, helpless; you do not have to live as a perpetual victim, despite your victimization. You do not have to continue to be manipulated by the manipulator, into believing you are nothing. Look, I am spilling my guts out; raw, messy, exposed, do not look away, embrace reality. There is hope in the messiness of our lives. Look.”

Restoration can begin and redemption can be found when we allow art to be a tool to help individuals and communities, experience healing. This allows for them to become a voice of positive change for their communities, as they have found transformation within themselves. Art as a tool for change can transform isolated individuals into communities with a collective voice for positive change!

Transformational Art cannot climax, with the artist sharing their own work but must proceed to the artist becoming a facilitator within a community, focusing on the assets of the community and it’s members; helping them to develop their own methods of sustainability and positive change. The artist is a catalyst for change, not left to the mere methods of making and showing their own art but immersing themselves within the community. The artist as a catalyst is the most crucial, especially as an individual of authenticity; words and images do not always speak the loudest, the viewers want to know if our actions match the message of our work.

Truth is rooted in the bedrock of the earth, transformation must come from within, we must unwrap ourselves from the cocoon of our own self-preservation, willing to stand on wobble legs and spread our wings. This may feel unnatural at first but soon we will look around and see we are not alone but in the midst of a migration of change.

Storytelling Video