Carmen Bilton, Artist
Portrait of Carmen by Chris Bilton (detail, pastel)
biltonarts@embarqmail.com
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Inspired by studying people and nature, Carmen Bilton searches to convey the essence of forms and a genuine expression of feelings in her sculpture, drawing and painting. Living life mindfully as both the most fundamental research and the ultimate creative expression, Carmen has raised a family in the rural south with her husband, artist Chris Bilton, in Eutawville, SC, where they run Bilton Arts Studio.
In art education, Carmen’s teaching philosophy centers around promoting critical thinking, creativity and kindness in the art studio, as students learn to make, appreciate, share and enjoy art, with the intention that these skills and joys can enrich life. Ever an advocate for the importance of arts education, she has taught art to all ages from pre-school to senior citizen students in school, art center, museum, and other type settings. She taught college studio art and art history classes for years and then changed gears to be a public primary school art teacher reaching hundreds of young students each year with her art lessons. She has served as a visiting artist in residence at schools across SC and directed “Carmen’s Academy of Creativity and Goodness” to enliven her small rural town with theater and art programs for local youth.
Carmen earned her M.F.A., in figurative art with an emphasis on sculpture, at the New York Academy of Art in 1991, where in 2015 she was part of a forensics sculpture project and was featured with her sculpture in articles on Fox 5 News (Could Students’ Art Solve Mystery of Unidentified Bodies? Feb. 9, 2015 myfoxny.com), CBS New York (Seen at 11: NY Art Students Hoping to Mold Answers to Cold Case Murder Mysteries, Feb.19, 2015), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website (ncmec.com, The Art of Forensics at the NYAA, YouTube, Flickr) and on the front page of the Weekend Magazine of the Orangeburg Times and Democrat (Using Her Gift for Good, Sunday, March 15, 2015).
She has exhibited art in New York, South Carolina, Colorado and France.