Macon County
Paintings
Carole Bandy Carson is a certified interior decorator and a self-taught artist.
Carson’s work pays homage to the past, incorporating themes of family, history, and faith. Using vintage photos as her inspiration, her work embodies nostalgia and the human experience as it relates to African Americans. She enjoys documenting everyday southern life and has a strong admiration for black sharecroppers, the simple life, and the civil rights movement and the black church.
Carson’s paintings are largely figurative pieces of black women. Her use of bold, bright colors, outlined in black, are reminiscent of the stained-glass windows in the churches of her youth. These places of worship, her church and her friends’ churches, were the foundation for her relationship with people, her faith, and her relationship with Christ.
Her figures have a strong presence, often with lots of attitude and personality, just like the women that she grew up watching. Carson’s work can be described as colorful, full of life, and representational without being overly realistic. Her figures are warm, thought provoking, and often romanticized.
Carson’s artwork can also be found at the Opelika Art Haus, where she is a studio artist and teaches classes.