Carney, Dennis
"Building layers of paint and texture through construction - destruction - reconstruction, allows the painting to unfold spontaneously."

Artist Dennis Carney was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and spent his childhood surrounded by the austere splendor of the desert landscape. But it was in Yeso, a nearly deserted "Ghost town" in the Eastern region of the state, near his grandparents' home, that his boyhood imagination was given freedom to soar. "I had free reign of an abandoned railroad stop," Carney reminisces. "I experienced first-hand the beauty of the decay and corrosion of this small town, from the layers of peeling paint on a collapsing house to the effects of wind and rain on an abandoned car or tractor. It was an amazing experience for a child."

Carney received his Bachelor of Fine art in Advertising Art with a minor in English from the University of Texas and worked as an art director before coming to Phoenix and resuming his passion for fine art. Carney credits the natural world and the many creative thinkers that surround him daily as the greatest influence to his art. He is inspired by the work of Frank Stella, Vernon Fisher and Eric Fishel for the narrative, story-telling quality in their expression, and admires visionaries in other mediums like Frank Lloyd Wright and Fredrico Fellini for the innovative ideas they brought to their art forms. Carney had the valuable opportunity to study under Peter Voulkos who is renowned for his groundbreaking approach to ceramics. Voulkos dared to create expressive, abstract forms, venturing to transform the utilitarian into new and exciting shapes. The common thread in the works of all of these artists for Carney is the element of palpable creativity and a visionary evolution, a methodology of discarding the old and striving to redefine it, fashioning it into something new and progressive.

This element of progressive reinvention is visible in Carney's work as well. Whether it is a painting of a tranquil room interior or a splash of abstract color on a multi-dimensional metal sculpture, there is always a sense of innovation and freshness in the result. a master of thoughtful gradations of color, Carney skillfully combines vibrant imagery with exciting surface textures to create an overall impression of timeless beauty, but with a distinctively modern touch.