About The Artist
I’m Carissa George
An artist located in Brisbane Australia, I use abstract realism and mixed media techniques to explore themes of beauty, courage, empowerment and self discovery.
From The Beginning
Carissa was born in New Zealand and migrated to Australia with her family in the mid 80’s, she was always drawing and painting as a child, one of her most treasured child hood memories is of her a special paint bag to keep her treasured paints in made by her grandma. Carissa had a connection with art in high school but gave it away after advice from her elders to pursue subjects that would get the “better career”.
This resulted in her interest in schooling declining as she didn’t enjoy the business type subjects that were chosen. After graduating high school with no sense of accomplishment she spend twelve years in a controlling abusive relationship which resulted in her self worth and confidence becoming almost non existent.
Carissa’s self discovery journey started in 2007 when she sought a good career in order to support her children as a single parent; after many years of study and hard work she has spent the last thirteen years as a theatre nurse. A career which enabled her to grow and bloom into a confident individual once again, for filling her passion to help other people.
Throughout these years Carissa has always remained creative, however she rekindled her love for art in 2022 when she had to emotionally support her son after the end of his toxic relationship which left him mentally and emotionally depleted. This experience brought back emotions and memories from years earlier of how hard it was to find herself after years of being controlled and manipulated by her ex-partner. Carissa needed to find an outlet for these re-emerging emotions and the canvas ended up being the chosen tool.
Carissa’s first ever painting - dedicated to her son.
One of Carissa’s most popular works is a piece that reflected the struggle she experienced when caring for the father of her children and her son who experienced very different mental health journeys. Most recently her son, she was often torn between their need for help and her own emotional well-being. It was a fine balancing act to ensure all involved moved forward in a positive direction full of hope. Whilst her son has moved on positively In his own healing journey, her ex-partner died by way of suicide in 2006.
Due to this history Carissa is an avid supporter of mental health and domestic violence organisations, with her piece Torn being sold at the recent recovered futures exhibition and a “Here I Am’ featuring in the 2024 exhibition.
Carissa started painting in 2022 and had such a positive response from her family and friends to the pieces she was creating being a self taught artist that she decided to start her own business to share her art with others. A journey that has not only been a massive learning curve but an adventure as well.
The Journey So Far
Even though Carissa was creating art that everybody seemed to love she felt that there was still so much to learn along the journey of becoming a professional artist, she wanted to emerge herself in everything she could find relating to art so she would no longer feel like an imposter compared to those that had studied art.
Some of her earlier work
One of her daughters
Another one of her daughters
“Nature of the Soul” - Carissa’s first large scale piece
Carissa found the Milan institute and has recently graduated from the twelve month mastery program. This program has taught her so much about personal growth and transformation as an artist, the course content reinforced that the resistance and difficulties she experienced were normal and if she kept pushing forward great things would happen.
Carissa uses abstract realism and mixed media techniques in her work, she combines symbolic poses, objects and animals to portray an empowering message of self discovery. If you want to see how she produces some of her work, she posts this process on her social media pages.
When in the studio Carissa is often found with music playing whilst working on multiple canvases at any given time. Carissa uses a combination of collage, inks, acrylic and oil paints when working on her masterpieces, she often uses a subtractive technique when sketching out the forms upon the canvas.
Each piece of art that she paints has a special connection to her journey of self discovery, Carissa hopes that her work provides inspiration and empowerment that her collectors need to achieve a greater potential.
“Now that I have rediscovered my love for art, I feel like I have come full circle and found a part of myself that I had lost for many years.” - Carissa George