I am a figurative painter, brand strategist, Creative Director, and founder of Carnes Creative.

My work lives at the intersection of fine art, identity, culture, and atmosphere. I hold an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a degree in Visual Communications from the Colorado Institute of Art, but my real education began long before that — in the moment I understood that art could change the way I saw people, myself, and the world around me.

Art gave me a language and a sense of belonging. It taught me how to look closely — at faces, body language, beauty, confrontation, and the energy in a room. It taught me that what is unspoken is often the most alive.

I began my career in editorial design, working as the Art Director of a city magazine before launching my own independent music and entertainment publication. That world — rock culture, nightlife, interviews, art, design, and urban energy — shaped my instinct for persona, atmosphere, self-expression, and the human charge behind a visual world.

Over the course of my career, my work has moved across brand, entertainment, cultural institutions, and founder-led organizations. I have led creative vision from concept through execution, shaping brand identities, large-scale art installations, campaigns, and visual systems that connect people to story.

I founded Carnes Creative as an artist-led practice — intuitive, hands-on, and deeply considered. The work is shaped by listening, material intelligence, and an understanding of how art, brand, and space come together to create feeling.

As a Creative Director, I am known for seeing the larger meaning behind the work. I collaborate with founders, executives, organizations, and creative teams to find the identity beneath the surface and shape it into a visual language with depth, atmosphere, and staying power.

I do not believe in dictating an identity or manufacturing a personality. I look for what is already there — the human energy, authenticity, and emotional truth beneath the surface — and give it form.

For me, art is not a finishing touch. It is the core of self-expression. It can shift the energy of a room, change the experience of a brand, and deepen the way people connect to each other. It can wake something up. It can make a wall speak. It can remind us that we are not just moving through spaces — we are feeling them, remembering them, becoming part of them.

My work is both strategic and visceral, polished and alive. It is rooted in the belief that art should do more than communicate. It should activate.

If your walls could talk, they should say something worth hearing.