Mindy Carson and her art: Who is Mindy?

Hello!
My name is Mindy, and I am an artist/educator/dreamer extraordinaire! I work with many different materials such as paint, charcoal, graphite, ink, film, etc... to explore the human psyche. The varied materials that I work with are due to my sense of exploration and inability to settle into one specific medium. I find so many benefits to all different sorts of media that I can't abandon even one of them! I find that photography can contribute such a sense of spontaneity, and nostalgia for me, that I don't think painting or drawing can do quite as well.

Anyway, about this human psyche thing:

As a human being in this world, I am most interested by the other human beings that are in this world with me. In the past, I have investigated this through religion, and specifically through the concept of love. The more people I meet, the more I realize that pure love is very hard to come by and even to offer. Now I prescribe to the Dalai Lama’s concept of compassion for all humans as a form of love. I live by his message, “Every action that is conscious, and that aims at bringing about a result, arises from a motivation. My religion is very simple: my key motivation is love. My religion is kindness.” The message of my artwork is similar: to bring my viewers into a realm in which they see themselves in others; primarily, compassion. I use imagery such as shared human emotions, the human form, intimate moments and memories of my own, and social norms (usually in a satirical way). I want my viewers to realize that below all the narcissism and self-absorbency, there is a part of them that connects with everyone else, and that part can help bring us together and strive to be something better. I believe that unless we can connect this part of ourselves to others, we will still suffer in this world, and continue to live for ourselves, not for those who come after us or live around us. I hope to help my viewers realize that every face has a name, and an opinion, and a story, and emotions. The more we see others as people, and not as stereotypes or strangers, the more we can do with this world.

I explore this through my paintings, mostly.