Susan Carnahan

Much of my work originates from an act of probing my past in order to assess my present identity. I was an only child, and the solitude caused me to construct fantastical narratives in my mind. Yet because I never acted out these narratives with other children, they remained unfulfilled and passive, growing persistently in my imagination. As I edged towards adolescence, my fantasies expanded and transformed, but even then they remained unconsummated, becoming a complex personal mythology. Now, as an adult and an artist, I am reinventing the dark and fantastical actions that I would never dare act out as a child. In many of my works, I depict characters who are longing for interaction, but various barriers prevent them from engaging with one another. They remain perpetually isolated, vulnerable, and longing for companionship. Their desperate search is in fact my own.