Daily Inspiration: Meet Mark and Sarah Carson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark and Sarah Carson.

Hi Mark and Sarah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We (Mark and Sarah Carson) are a married pair of artists originally from Iowa. We met working for the Des Moines Art Center when we were teenagers. We went on to take art classes together all through high school and then parted on our separate ways toward a higher education. Skip ahead a good ten years and we find ourselves once again at coffee downtown – discussing a future art studio with one another as we sip our drinks. The love was already there. It had always been there. The love happened first and then came the studio! Then we brought the studio West bound – Denver, Colorado!

Our art stems from our imagination, passion for story-telling and nature, and finding uniqueness within the seemingly mundane.

We work in a variety of media, mainly focused in watercolor, ink, digital and acrylic painting as well as intaglio and relief printmaking. Mark, trained in fine art and graphic design, is a technical artist with a high focus on detail and the surreal. Sarah’s background in printmaking, drawing and painting leans toward experimental approaches often with the final piece being mixed-media.

Our goal is to create worlds for anyone and everyone to enjoy or even escape too.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Well… money, no doubt. Constantly trying to make a profit with a new business has its challenges. Ordering product uses up what little money we have. Then you have booth fees/application fees for art festivals. Then of course there are travel/lodging, and outside fees and more fees.

But money is just money and any new business struggles with this. So, other than that, the learning curve has been a bit wild. We are now in our second year of doing art shows & festivals and every time we do a show we learn tons more. The distance we should travel for a show was a big learning curve – we were still in Iowa and figured we would take any show that looked good in any neighboring state, or state over… that bit us when it came to cost/profit. It was (and still can be) especially tricky in terms of our visual setup, packing efficiency and figuring out our market. The closer the better as it turns out, which is a major reason we moved west to be closer to a year-round circuit.

There are so many bumps along the way. But keeping positive and having a good outlook always helps. I feel like patrons/customers notice these types of things and don’t want to go into an art booth with a couple of grumps.

Also, and this is not the case all around but we found there are two very different types of shows out there, (probably way more than two), but we found that a more traditional art festival does better for us. Anytime we have done a makers market, craft fair or farmers market we have done far worse. So I guess knowing your product goes a long way.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We (Mark and Sarah Carson) work in a variety of media, mainly focused in watercolor, ink, digital and acrylic painting as well as intaglio and relief printmaking. Mark, trained in fine art and graphic design, is a technical artist with a high focus on detail and the surreal. Sarah’s background in printmaking, drawing and painting leans toward experimental approaches often with the final piece being mixed-media. Our goal is to create worlds for anyone and everyone to enjoy or even escape too.

Contact Info:

• Website: thecarskishop.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/carskistudios/
• Facebook: facebook.com/CarskiStudios/