Carole McNamee

Bio

Artist Statement

Following a 30-year career in computer science, Carole McNamee retired and reinvented herself as a marriage and family therapist with a special interest in the therapeutic use of the expressive arts. In 2005, she founded Willowbank Creative Center in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she had a private practice and facilitated workshops using the expressive arts for healing and personal growth.

She has facilitated workshops and trainings with a focus on art making as reflections of the development of human consciousness at the School of Visual Arts (New York City) the Institute for Creativity and Madness (Bethesda, MD) and other regional and national venues.

Following a second retirement in 2015 and move to New England to be closer to family, Carole is now focusing on her own artistic endeavors. She has studied at The Studio School in Roanoke, VA, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, The North Bennet Street School in Boston, and with Steve Aimone at the Thomaston Academy in Thomaston, ME as well as privately. She has been exhibiting her work since 2001.

I am interested in the relationship between art, creativity, and the development of consciousness. I have my own personal experience with each of my creations, nourished as the work evolves over time. Sometimes it is the process of creating a work or series that becomes a metaphor for my lived experience. Sometimes it is the evolving product that captures my attention. Regardless, each work breaks new ground and invites me to new awarenesses and understandings. Viewers will have their own experience of my work, based upon their personal history and memories. I hope that my work evokes responses, inviting new understandings and insights for the viewer as well as for me the creator.