Carl Bond

Carl Bond (°1975, Cudahy, Wisconsin) creates illustrations with Dreamscope, GIMP and Studio Artist on the computer, among other computer software. By first experimenting with processes that offer elements of chance, Carl has discovered and now creates art by whimsically playing and value is inherently created. Play itself is indeed a serious and intimate matter to Carl. However, different rules apply here than the rules that most people know of and even an ordinary photo meets, through his hands, a conversion of style, color and presentation, where Carl finds further growth and awakening from perceived value.

Carl is often locked in struggle, not just in art, but in Life itself, revealing an inherent naked awkwardness, a layer of vulnerable slapstick confusion, but also a enigmatic goofiness that echoes his greatest strengths. “Is he kidding or is he serious,” people around him sometimes ask. Some do know him as being endlessly animated with charming wit and sometimes accident prone, but often with a beaming smile all the same. Yes, there is struggle in Life, but the antidote is, at least in his case, play, the one thing adults probably don't seem to do enough of in their serious world. There is also a meditative aspect to art creation, that as he digs a hole into his own soul, it can enable Carl to relax specific feelings embedded therein. One may see how the act of play and meditation can enrich his Life, that Carl would rather disarm the poison of a bad day with gentleness, humor and illustrating with computers than to just suffer through the depression of the day. By peacefully working through the harmony of colors in art as if it was molding clay, Carl seems to excel yet again as an individual. Apparently.

His arrival at art in this way of cathartic healing could be seen as somewhat accidental - or, is his arrival to create art in this way actually a planned event for the Universe to behold? Carl doesn't know, he only sees Life as a riddle of sorts, it's best to be armed with a sense of both genuine love and humor so that one doesn't take anything too seriously. Why not go with the flow or follow a personal instinct? In any case, his works appear almost as dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet and nearly complements what can be seen in the real world. Examined closely, one can see any general color being represented, a subjective, interpolated stance on how an object actually appears in the vivid world and how that world appears to the artist. Carl Bond currently engages in continued play within the greater area of Olympia, Washington, while consuming enlightenment on a daily basis, as in transcending his own perceptions and restlessly discovering more things that are new to him in that moment of discovery.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​