Carletta Carrington Wilson

Through poetry, artist books, installations, and mixed media, Carletta Carrington Wilson discovers answers to questions she did not know to ask. This artist finds each artistic endeavor to be an act of excavation and a revelation. Her work is described as “decorative with a message.”  Her poems continue to appear in local and national publications. Carletta’s mixed-media collages have been described as “decorative with a message.” Textiles, found objects, beads and paper revolve around a central iconic image. These elements serve the purpose of enhancing, highlighting, inferring and interrogating the image and the ideas it presents and portrays.

Her work can be found in the Book Art Collections of the Allen Library (University of Washington), Collins Memorial Library (University of Puget Sound) and in the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas. She has exhibited at ArtXchange Gallery, Gallery 110, the Northwest African American Museum, Coalition Art Gallery, Gallery Rene, Columbia City Art Gallery, Onyx Fine Arts Exhibition, University of Puget Sound, Seward Park Audubon Center, Festival Sundiata, Harem, Aljoya and University House Wallingford.  In 2011, she was artist in residence at the James W. Washington Foundation. The exhibit book of the bound debuted at the Northwest African American Museum 2012-2013. letter to a laundress was featured at the Onyx Fine Arts Annual Exhibit of 2017.

2024 Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series:

Poem of Stone & Bone:  The Iconography of James W. Washington Jr. in Fourteen Stanzas and Thirty-One Days documents four installations created on the grounds and studio of the artist in 2011. Using objects, land, and literature, Wilson created a nuanced perspective of the life and work of the noted sculptor.

Excerpt from “Poem of Stone & Bone”

Along civilization’s trail
Something went wrong
What to say
If they come in the morning
Kingsblood royal
Monkey on a string
Substance and shadow
The uncalled
Yesterday, today and forever
Bearing witness to the truth
The way of the wizard
Mystics and Zen masters
Journey into light
Souls on fire
Born to rebel

Note: This poem is composed of titles from books in the library of James W. Washington Jr.

Artist Support Program 2010: Record sunlight clenched like tiny roots and veins that migrate, a CD companion to the book Harvest of the Hoe.

2000 Writers Program

Sound Clips
  • Carletta Carrington Wilson - History of the Quilt
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Jack Straw is thrilled to announce Summit Sound, an audio gallery at the new Seattle Convention Center Summit Building on Pine St. Summit Sound was envisioned by the SCC Art Program as “an outdoor space where residents and visitors can immerse themselves in one of our region’s revered creative disciplines–sound.” As the new home to […]

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Wooden bench and platform adjacent to a glass and metal building in the background. Speakers mounted on black columns over the bench.

Categories: Art and Heritage Partnerships, Artist Support Program, Writers Program, Youth Education Programs

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