Carolyn Quan

"Luscious Lily"

Bio

Carolyn Quan is one of fine art's most innovative, photographic artists. Launching a career in fine art in 2002, Carolyn Quan has been celebrated by art collector's worldwide from Germany to Japan to Australia. With more than 20 years of professional experience in the commercial art field, Carolyn has transitioned seamlessly into fine art, applying her refined sense of design, composition, color, and technical expertise to the art that she creates. A prolific artist, Carolyn creates fine art photo collages that are a unique combination of her own original 35 mm photographs that are creatively and artistically blended together and transformed into imaginative works of fine art. Her art is inspired by spirituality and the beauty that she finds in nature and humankind.

An Artist since childhood, Carolyn Quan grew up in Toronto, Canada and earned a degree in Commercial Design and Photography from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She was the recipient of a full-tuition scholarship for her fourth year of studies awarded to her by City-TV/MuchMusic, Canada's MTV, along with a summer internship.

After working as a designer in television for 3 years, she moved to New York City to pursue her dream of designing album covers. In NYC, Carolyn was a music industry Art Director and designed album covers for many celebrities, including Barry Manilow, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin, Yes and the Grateful Dead, to name just a few. She is the recipient of 4 gold records for her creative achievements in the music industry. In 1992, Carolyn began to build her own graphic design company which specialized in the entertainment industry. Clients included PolyGram Video, CBS Radio, Black Entertainment Television, Sony Music, EMI and Warner Music Int’l, amongst others.

In 1997, Carolyn diversified her business and launched a glossy multicultural magazine, Urban Mozaik, which promotes cross cultural understanding and celebrates diversity and is currently published worldwide on the internet at www.multiculturalmagazine.com.

In the year 2000, after 11 years in NYC, Carolyn moved to Maui, Hawaii and since 9/11 has focused her creative endeavors on her fine art. 

In January 2004 Carolyn opened her first art gallery and studio in Lahaina, Maui. In 2005 it transitioned into The Quan Gallery on Front Street in Lahaina - a co-op art gallery featuring six local artists - and on September 11, 2007, Carolyn opened The Quan Gallery in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, in the heart of Waikiki. The Quan Gallery in Waikiki was her first solo art gallery. Also in 2007, two of her nudes were added to the permanent collection of art at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction founded by world-renowned sex researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey, in Bloomington, Indiana. Her artwork has been shown in Rio de Janeiro; New York City; Los Angeles; Taos, New Mexico; Riviera Maya, Mexico; Toronto, Canada; and throughout the Hawaiian islands. She recently re-located her home-base to the San Francisco Bay Area to expand her art career, do road shows throughout the country and to be near family.

Q. Your inspiration for this piece or your work as a whole

A. My love of nature and humanity combined with my love of photography and design have guided me towards what I feel is my higher path in life. I am deeply inspired by spirituality and all of the divine beauty that God has created on this earth and I feel that it is my duty to share this inspiration with others through my art and my creative vision. It is my hope that my art will remind people about how important our natural world is to us and that we, too, are part of it – integrated with it on many different levels from the air we breathe, to the food we eat, to the remedies that heal us.

By integrating my photographs of humans, animals, and other elements of nature, I create fine art photo collages that evoke a world untouched by man-made objects. Through my creations we are reminded that we are one with nature. The organic theme of my art places emphasis on the fact that our natural world provides us with all of our basic needs and an insurmountable abundance of beauty on this earth.

Q. How you came to create/express erotic art

A. During my 20-plus years as a commercial artist, I had to hold back on how I expressed myself because of the nature of the commercial art industry. When I began creating fine art, due to the tragic events of 9 -11 (a whole other story), I simply exploded with the self-expression that I had held back on for so many years. I lived in Hawaii at the time, a place where you don't wear a lot of clothes. In other words, you are more than 80% naked most of the time. This inspired creativity around sensuality for me. The feeling of your body in nature was like no other. And people were so willing to model for me and be nude in the warm waters and tropical temperatures of Hawaii without hesitation. It all just transpired and developed naturally. By nature my artwork took on an erotic tone and quality to it.

Q. Is your art an expression of your sexuality, external observation or does it come from another source? Please explain.

A. I think that all art is an expression of ourselves, so if we choose or are guided or inspired to be expressive in an erotic form, then that suggests that we are expressing our sexuality to some degree. It may be subtle or it may be more obvious. I feel more like myself when I express in a more sensual and abstract way, rather than a blatant and obvious sexual one. I believe that leaving more to the imagination gets the viewer more involved and therefore creates more of an experience for them. It's more sensual than sexual.

Q. Additional thoughts or comments

A. When I moved to Maui, Hawaii in the year 2000 I began to better understand our human connection with nature due to the deep cultural and spiritual beliefs of the Hawaiian people and the extraordinary natural beauty found on the islands. The wind blowing across my body felt different there. It's warm and sensual and wraps around you as if God was softly and gently blowing on you. I call the Hawaiian winds, the breath of God because that's what it feels like. A walk through the moist rainforest wearing nothing but a bikini and hiking shoes makes you feel like you're a part of the forest with the leaves brushing up against your body and the moisture on your skin, a swim in a cave or in a calm, shallow tide pool in the hot tropical sun gives a whole other bodily sensation. All of these sensations upon and within the body made me feel so connected to the earth and the energy within it and around it. This feeling and inspiration transformed into the underlying message in my art, and in particular with my nudes and erotic art, that we are one with nature. We are part of this energetic, organic material that makes up everything in the universe - and - that is erotic to me.