What the photographer sees...

Creativity sometimes seems like a force-of-nature that must find an outlet regardless of obstacles. Part of the dilemma for the artist is to determine which expressive path this outpouring of creativity will follow: art, poetry, performance? Even more perplexing, sometimes the stream of creativity shifts during the course of a lifetime, dividing once and then dividing again, birthing new forms of expression.

Meet Alliance Art Gallery’s featured March guest artist, Carol Estes. A photographer, writer of prose and poetry, and spoken word performer, she grew up in Kansas City and recently closed her antique shop in NW Indiana after 29 years.

Even within the genre of camera-and-image, Carol steps boldly into different schools of expression. She offers photos with the crispness and allure of an Ansel Adams as well as a soft celebration of color evoking a watercolor sensation. Then she invites us into portraiture of the kind seen in fashion magazines.

Photography—and writing—entered her sphere of life abruptly. As she says, “About 10 years ago, I experienced several traumatic events. In order to heal and grieve, I picked up a digital camera, and started writing. It has changed my life, hence, the phrase “Welcome to Carol World…Life as I see it!””
 Now WE invite you to see this award-winning woman’s work.

She has exhibited in Juried Shows and Art Galleries in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. In 2016, a work, “Adieu!”, an image of a dying mermaid, was accepted to the 4th Annual Bridgeport Competition Exhibit at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, and won 1st place in the Click Photography Show (2015) and “Ruminations” was accepted to the Juried Photography Exhibit at Morpho Gallery in Chicago. As a photographer, she has won numerous awards since 2011, and was selected to the 2014 Hoosier Women’s Artists, where her photo, The Jury Is Out, was on display in the Lieutenant Governor’s Office for a calendar year.

Least you think her sole current venue is photography, she adds, “Performance Art is also something I enjoy.” She has regularly performed on stage at the Acorn Theater, Three Oaks, MI, Paul Henry’s Art Gallery in Hammond, IN and The Front Porch in Valparaiso, IN with original compositions. She participates in Poetry Slams at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, the Purdue North Central Poetry Palooza, and the historic stage of The Green Mill in Chicago.
 Her first book, Memories Evoked, was published in October, 2016. Carol also has work on two CD's released by local bands in 2016, and her model photography has been published in many American-based beauty magazines, most recently FEMME Rebelle, an international magazine out of the United Kingdom.

The Alliance Art Gallery invites you to enjoy its opening reception honoring Carol Estes work, on Saturday, March 11, from 5:00 until 8:00 PM. This reception coincides with Hannibal’s Second Saturday Gallery Night.

Dunescape

Dunescape

Saddle Sore

Saddle Sore

Golden Hour

Golden Hour