Throughout her three-decade career artist Carrie Pearce has become recognized for painting odd objects or out-of-the-ordinary scenarios that have a touch of whimsy and sentimentality. This series of paintings has defined narratives and off-kilter compositions, such as Rococo, a portrait in a traditional style but features cats and girls walking on stilts. Girl Stuff, another of these paintings, is filled with toys and other items on the sitter’s dress.
Toytrix, oil on canvas, 60 x 36"
Pearce has taken a different turn in her most recent grouping of works, where her technical abilities are on full display. Focusing on Midwestern life, these paintings are more internal and more grounded in realism. It is storytelling that is quieter, but reflective of the mood and atmosphere that surrounded Pearce the past year.
“When COVID started, I honestly completely lost my sense of humor and that was just really a life changing moment for me,” Pearce says. “Just to realize that you’re completely wiped out, you can’t work, you can’t go sell, the galleries can’t be open, it was mind blowing and knowing that it could happen so quickly [was eye-opening]. I found it difficult to paint humorous things.
Girl Stuff, oil on panel, 24 x 18"I started reflecting about what I am going to do with the rest of my life. Am I always going to paint this quirky pop surrealist stuff? I still do, and I like pop surrealism, but it’s not all of my work anymore.”
Pearce, who lives in central Illinois, began to embrace the Midwest and has been comforted knowing that is where she has been during the pandemic. In these new paintings, including Chicken Coup and When She Woke, the artist was focusing on her surroundings. “The landscape is playing a role in that,” Pearce explains. “I grew up in the middle of a cornfield where my closest friend was 2 miles down the street. I think there’s something to that, and my work I’m doing now is along those lines. Rather than looking to the outside for inspiration, I’m looking to the inside.”
Many of these pieces are derived from vintage photographs people have discarded over time. From that inspiration, Pearce is telling the stories of people from smaller towns and of the towns themselves. It is relatable to art collectors who once lived in the Midwest or still live there today, which is important to Pearce’s artwork.
Chicken Coup, oil on panel, 48 x 36"
“I think that the two coasts get looked at a lot in art, and I’ve shown in Los Angeles, but I think if you’re a collector and you live in the Midwest, [you] should look in [your] own circle,” Pearce shares. “I always think in concentrated circles, and people who have a similar life experiences as mine—who live in Chicago, down to Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas City—they don’t have to look to New York to find art they appreciate.”
This ability to share art of the Midwest with people who live in the Midwest was one reason Pearce joined RJD Gallery in Romeo, Michigan, after the gallery moved there from New York. It allowed her to continue embracing where she is from and to find patrons in the Midwest area—and outside of it, as Pearce’s works have universal appeal. September 2 through October 14, the gallery will present The Space Between My Dreams, its first solo exhibition for Pearce.
Chicken Piece, mixed media, 60 x 60"
“Carrie Pearce brilliantly integrates vintage hand-picked objects with unique narratives for each viewer to interpret as their own vision and truth,” says gallery owner Richard Demato. “She reveals to us that space found between our dreams—of memory enhanced by feelings and imagination—that we can return to time and time again to rest and be delighted in solitary revelry.”
One of her latest paintings, Chicken Piece, encapsulates this idea through a combination of her signature style and the rural feel. “When COVID hit, I was wondering what I wanted to do; and so I’m working on my master’s degree and a lot of this has come from being in school. It’s interesting at my age, and it’s so different from 30 years ago,” says Pearce. “I had a lot of fun experimenting. I took that canvas and did 25 individual paintings and mixed them up and sewed them together.” 
When She Woke, oil on panel, 36 x 24"
The 25 individual paintings feature imagery one on top of the other and is meant to show how memories are meshed. “Memories aren’t linear,” Pearce elaborates. “They’re one on top of each other and it’s how the distortion of memories happens. You think you remember something one way, and you ask your brother and he remembers it a different way…It’s such distortion. After giving it as much thought as I’ve been, I realize most of my memories are better than the actual experience. That really is an odd human nature quality.”
Rococo, oil on panel, 36 x 24"
To accompany each painting, Pearce writes a story that adds to the imagery. She says, “It’s not completely exposing what my intent was in the piece, but just adds another layer of complexity and unity to bring it together so someone can relate to it.” —
RJD Gallery
227 N. Main Street • Romeo, MI 48065
(586) 281-3613 • www.rjdgallery.com
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