A. Eilene Carver received a BFA from Baylor University and her MFA in Painting and printmaking from UC Berkeley. She has taught Painting I, II and Portfolio, Pastel Portraiture, Color & Design, and currently teaches Drawing I, II and Portfolio Drawing.

Artist's Statement - A. Eilene Carver

"In order to get something universal,
you must be very specific"
-Max Beckman

Art is communication. My paintings reflect experience. Symbols play a primary role in the content of my work. Some of these symbols are obvious, while others are obscurely private. They are drawn from my own personal iconography, ancient cultures and previous art genres. I continue to find inspiration and technical challenge in the 'vanitas' style of the Dutch. This tradition of still life informs and echoes the content I am drawn to in my own work; the Dutch didactically reflected the frailty of life, and its temporal state.

My still-life's and portraits are suffused with narrative. A wide range of content is portrayed symbolically; hope, jealously, trust, vanity, frailty, fear, wisdom, knowledge, love, fidelity, memory, death, faith, the soul, spirit, purity, and most of all the contrast of the temporal and the eternal. I juxtapose objects and human subjects to infer our human imprint on our surroundings.

The content is what drives me to paint; the process itself is what keeps me engaged.

I am not as interested in the viewer arriving at a singular intent, as I am in stirring each individual to ponder, and then draw from their own reference of experience to define a more personal introspective conclusion.

"I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw."
-Solomon's Wisdom

Instructor Website

Drawing II Syllabus

Portfolio Drawing Syllabus