ML - Aspen Peak

Aspen Peak - 2016 - Issue 1 - Summer

Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak

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IT'S BEEN 40 YEARS SINCE BASALT artist Richard Carter was Herbert Bayer's assistant in Aspen, but the Bauhaus architect and artist's influence is clearly present in Carter's newest series of works. "It's in my blood," he says of the modernist movement known for bold lines, stark shapes, and bright colors. "Longtime collectors of mine will come in and say, 'We know where this came from,' but it's critically different." He's referring to the fruit of two years of work: more than 50 large, square, acrylic-on-wood pieces—16 of which will be presented in a June exhibition titled "Mandalas Considered" at The Launchpad in Carbondale. "I got interested in the mandala, not in a spiritual way but in a formal way, the structure of it," Carter says about the geometric pattern used to represent the universe in many Eastern cultures. "For centuries and eons it's held this square form, and it's a steady presentation of how they view the universe." Artistic representations of the science behind the natural world are nothing new for 70-year-old Carter. His previous series have featured everything from iconoclastic icebergs under the Brooklyn Bridge to birds, lightning, and fire. He has always been fascinated with physics, and that's reflected in many of his images, especially those featuring Prismacolor drawings of particle fission overlaid with deconstructed borders and boxes. One, called Higgs Mandala, features a re-creation of the actual image in which scientists discovered the Higgs boson particle in 2013. Bright orange, yellow, and verdant green rectangles make up a complex visual, like building blocks scattered over a map on the floor. "It's a starting point for how you can focus on something and maybe have it be meditative and maybe not," he says. "I didn't want them to be this super-literal, balanced approach. I wanted them to be asym- metrical, colorful, and wanted to focus on a central image that [had] some meaning at that moment I painted it." For Carter, that can mean many things. He's a cofounder of the Aspen Art Museum and deeply rooted in the valley's arts scene, currently serving on the boards of The Arts Campus at Willits and The Art Base, the midvalley nonprofit that will be the beneficiary of an Aspen Peak–hosted summer fundraiser where one of his works will be auctioned off. "They've evolved over different ways in the past two years," he says of his mandala pieces, "but they all have some reference to scientific notation." The series visibly transition from complex, physics-centered pieces to modern, simplified, yet more abstract works. The same could be said of Carter himself. "Mandalas Considered" runs June 3–25 at The Launchpad in Carbondale, 76 S. Fourth Street, 970-963-1680; launchpadcarbondale.com. "Drawings" runs June 10–July 1 at The Art Base in Basalt, 99 Midland Spur, 970-927- 4123; theartbase.org. richardcarterart.com DICK CARTER THE BASALT ARTIST EXPLORES THE UNIVERSE—ONE BRUSH STROKE AT A TIME. BY CHRISTINE BENEDETTI 102 ASPENPEAK-MAGAZINE.COM PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY PRIKRYL. OPPOSITE PAGE: SHAWN O'CONNOR

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