Carla Wilkins grew up in Tampa, Florida and earned a Bachelor of Science in visual art at The Florida State University followed by a Masters in Art Education from The University of New Mexico. She has taught in elementary and secondary schools and loves bringing out the creativity in all children and in every kind of medium. She claims teaching art was the best gift she found in life, and fervently believes that “art can save the world”!
Carla’s drive to create has always been inherently therapeutic, which at one point led her to study art therapy under art therapist Maxine Hull in Atlanta as well as a year of graduate work at Florida State. Her greatest influences have come from relationships with people, outdoor adventures and a few curve balls that are inevitable in everyone’s life, good and bad. In other words, she paints her own experiences. In this regard, she finds Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits and the narrative paintings by Jacob Lawrence among the most inspiring art. Expressing her stories is a personal process in hopes of always moving forward, which can often take years of revisiting the same work adding new layers of oil paint, oil pastel, linocut prints, chalk pastels and hot glue. Another approach she uses to improve herself as a human being has been painting overlooked patterns in rocks, tree bark, waves and leaves, attempting to reflect the metaphors found between nature and the human psyche. Peaceful perspectives are the gifts in these studies. Carla’s passion for hiking, rock climbing, swimming and kayaking allowed for intimate discoveries in the beauty of earth’s elements, from beaches to boulders, from rivers to deserts. She appreciates the landscape wherever she lives which has been Kansas City, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Tallahassee and currently in Tampa, Florida.
EXHIBITIONS
2018 Bamboozle Café, “A New Year of Art,” Tampa, FL
2018 Carrollwood Cultural Center, “Divine Collective,” Tampa, FL
2017 Art Fair, “Art Crawl,” Lakeland, FL
2017 Carrollwood Cultural Center, “Artists: The Soul of the Community,” Tampa, FL
2017 Bamboozle Café, “Downtown Arts Invasion,” Tampa, FL
2016 Stirling Gallery, “I Did it My Way,” Dunedin, FL
2016 Carrollwood Cultural Center, “Possibilities of Perception,” Tampa, FL
2016 Rare Hues Gallery, “Local Spring Art Show,” Tampa, FL
2016 Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, Emerging Artist Category, Tampa, FL
2015 Art Fair, “Winter in the Park,” Vero Beach, Florida
2015 Art Fair, “Art Crawl,” Lakeland, Florida
2015 William Johnson Gallery of FSU, Juried International Exhibit, “Social Selfies: Constructing Community,” Tallahassee, FL
2014 621 Gallery, “Ewha Cultural Exhibition,” Tallahassee, FL
2011 Arts Clayton Gallery, “Juried Art Competition,” Jonesboro, GA
2010 Art Institute of Atlanta, Juried Art Show “High School Art Educators of Georgia,” Atlanta, GA
2007 Sharptop Arts Center, “Water,” Jasper, Georgia
2006 Harris Arts Center, “Juried Annual Art Show” Calhoun, Georgia
2006 Sharptop Arts Center, “Fiber Arts Show,”Jasper, Georgia
HONORS/AWARDS
2018 Professional Development for Artists Grant, funded by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners and the Arts Council of Hillsborough County
2016 Honorable Mention for “Ruptured Adolescence,” Stirling Gallery, Dunedin, FL
2016 Emerging Artist Recipient of Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, Tampa, FL
2010 Certificate of Commendation for Outstanding Achievement for Art Teachers,
Clayton County Board of Education, GA
2004 Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
2004 Graduated with Honors and “Distinction” on Competency exam, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Education
2004 Master of Arts in Art Education, University of New Mexico
1999 Bachelor of Science in Visual Art, Florida State University