College Art Major
College Art Major
Anything but Art [1993, Minneapolis, MN]
Sure I was an Arty Teen but I knew an art major wouldn't get me "a job" so while I didn't know what I wanted to major in, it was not going to be art. As a freshman at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, our advisors were handed out randomly. I received the chair of the Art Department. And since most the classes I wanted were already filled, my first semester I was signed up for a 8 a.m. printmaking class and also a drawing class. Not only did I end up an art major, I minored in art history and later picked up the one missing art history class I needed and upgraded to a double major. And it turns out being a professional artist is the career that makes me the happiest! Carye the Bee [1993, Minneapolis, MN]In my printmaking class I was playing around with making my own stamps out of linoleum carvings. I made some Celtic knotwork designs, and then a cartoon bee, which I accidently carved eight legs instead of six. When my classmates pointed this out, I changed the narrative. "That is a Carye Bee!" I said. And I even made a zine about it. From that day forward, my art name was Carye Bee. A friend's mother often referred to me as Carye the Bee, which I liked even more. My early prints before I shifted to a press name are signed Carye Bee or Carye the Bee. In 2001, I legally changed my name to Carye Bye. My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Bye and she passed away in 2000. The last name is pronounced "Bee" in Norway. I'd come magically full circle and I guess it was meant to be (to bee?).Arty Yard Sales [1993-1995, Minneapolis & Chaska, MN]My high school friend Erin, co-creator of The Bizzare zine, her friend Eric and I liked to put on yard sales every summer. I was always thrifting, and finding new things and trading out things for other things, and we liked to make a little money. We loved to make funny signs using magazine pictures for our sales. Even a regular old yard sale had to have an element of arty.
Rinso Macdougall [1994-1995, Minneapolis, MN]Erin & Eric and I gave ourselves new names inspired by the laundry detergent aisle. Grocery stores were still inspiring me artistically continuing into my first years of college. I became RINSO Macdougall, Eric was DASH Snail, and Erin was Gloria BOLD. We also made T-shirts to wear of each of us holding our namesake. How meta!
Diary of Brown Pants Man [1995, Minneapolis, MN]
For nine days I kept a diary of brown pants men I saw on the bus or around the city. I published the diary in a new one-off art zine that Eric (Dash Snail) and I made called Rolf Zombie. I have no idea what inspired the diary, perhaps I just noticed a trend, but I remember I also submitted it for my Creative Writing class and my Professor really thought it was clever.City Arts [1995, Minneapolis & St. Paul, MN]
For the second half of my sophomore year I went off-campus to participate in City Arts, a semester-long program about art, culture and social change. It was a bit like a study abroad but in the inner city community. I was the only student from Augsburg and joined 10 other college students from campuses from across the Twin Cities plus two staff members. Our group of thirteen became a closely knit group that semester. Each week we had readings, arts performances or artist talks, and an internship of our choice. I created my own project of teaching zine making to junior high students at the inner city charter school at Cedar Riverside high rise apartments near my college campus. It was a challenging and rewarding semester. I felt I got a lot more out of being out in the community than I got from sitting in the classroom. Minneapolis and St. Paul have many immigrant communities, people of color, and city social justice issues and I loved experiencing this through the eyes of artists. We saw a performance at Penumbra Theatre which at the time was Minnesota's only African-American theater company. We met George X, a youth director and rapper with Minnesota Threat. Artist Robert Desjarliat and Amy Cordova, two Native American artists, talked about how their identities and cultural heritage play out in their visual art and writer Paul Carrizalez shared his story as a St Paul west side Latino. We saw the play Paper Angels at Theater Mu. The choreographer met with our group to share her work on this story about Chinese immigrant laborers who built the national railroad. One of my most memorable artist visits was with Rafala Green, a sculptor and public artist who was heading up the Peavy Park Gateway Project. Not only did I get the chance to physically work on the mosaic piece, I really developed an appreciation and love for city public art.Ireland Photographer [1995-1996, Cork and around Ireland]
Obsessed with Ireland most of my teen years, I studied abroad in Cork, Ireland, my junior year. I really wanted to attend a photography school in The Burren but because I was getting a liberal arts education, I chose University College Cork and didn't take any studio art classes (they didn't have any!) but knocked off some required subjects of history and language and took archeology and art history. But in my spare time, I was The Photographer. When I returned back to the states for my senior year, I printed many of my favorite photographs, Rory & the Radio (my roommate), Jumping Rope (Lauren, who I child minded), and Christy (my best friend and hitching partner) for my senior art show. [See in Early Art Slide Show]Emerging Printmaker [mid-1990s, Minneapolis, MN]As a freshman I took Printmaking I and as a senior I took Printmaking II. I created etchings, mono prints and instead of linocuts like I made in Printmaking I, I switched over to making wood cut relief prints, which influenced the direction of my art forever. My Professor Phil Thompson lent me his special Japanese wood-cut tool set he ordered from McClain's printmaking in the burbs of Portland, Oregon. My first woodcut was of my friend Christy sticking out her thumb for one of our Ireland hitching adventures. One year after college I had my first all wood-cut print art show. I still loved photography, but printmaking was more accessible once I no longer was a student and lost access to print pictures in the photography dark room.
On Irish Time, Study Abroad Year