Skip to main content

  • Home
  • Content
    • Poetry
    • Fiction
    • Non-Fiction
    • Criticism
    • Visual Art
    • Movies
  • Creators
  • Archives
    • Unlikely Stories Mark V
    • Unlikely Stories Episode IV
    • Unlikely 2.0
    • Unlikely Stories
  • Books
  • Submissions
  • Tips
  • Subscribe

Nine Paintings, July 2025

by Carrie Beene

Carrie graduated from the Kansas City Art institute. The shaping of her imagery began in those early years through trial and error. A peek into the multimedia abstracts on paper was already beginning.

Moving to New York City after graduation, Carrie spent several years immersed in her artwork, exploring the mood of 1980’s New York. Carrie’s art was included in multiple shows in new and emerging East Village NYC galleries. She caught the eye of the art world and was gifted 6 months in Julian Schnabel’s studio while he was out of the country. Several very large canvases were the result.

In 1989 Carrie moved to Haiti remaining there developing a new vision of rhythm and color over a period of 12 years. She returned to NY and created a digital art presence in addition to continuing with analogue artwork in her old East Village neighborhood.

After years of obsessive experimentation mixing materials, she arrived at her unique multimedia works on paper that you see today. Starting with charcoal powder Carrie found ways to adhere it to surfaces with dark drying oil, a type of painters’ medium. Having success with the charcoal she added raw pigment powders in myriad colors bought from a pigment store serendipitously next door to her studio. The media is layered with each other to create the textural interlacing of oil, water, powder and ink, graphite, charcoal and more.

  • Add comment

Comments

Tobey Hiller (not verified)

Sat, 07/05/2025 - 9:10pm
These are fantastic, in all ways. Such range. And the mixed materials, amazing.
  • reply

Richard Downing (not verified)

Mon, 07/07/2025 - 11:20am
I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing Carrie Been's paintings. She masterfully rides a fine line between the abstract and the real. I recommend staying with each piece for at least a few minutes as each rewards prolonged viewing. I find myself going back to numbers 6 and10 in particular. Unlikely Stories Six is certainly starting strong.
  • reply

Richard Downing (not verified)

Mon, 07/07/2025 - 11:21am
I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing Carrie Been's paintings. She masterfully rides a fine line between the abstract and the real. I recommend staying with each piece for at least a few minutes as each rewards prolonged viewing. I find myself going back to numbers 6 and10 in particular. Unlikely Stories Six is certainly starting strong.
  • reply

KK (not verified)

Tue, 07/08/2025 - 3:52am
Brilliant! I'm spending my Tuesday here in the Philippines (it's now late afternoon) with this page open and indulging in Carrie's paintings one by one - again and again. Thank you!
  • reply

Add comment

Cancel

Unlikely Stories Facebook Group

Send a Tip

Recent Articles:

"Another Police Riot" and "Go Bag for the Final Apocalypse." by Mark Folse
"Across the Water," "Laughing," and "Drift" by Bob Heman
"Spells for the Wicked" virtual book release party with Caroline Hagood, dan raphael, Tara Campbell, and Marc Vincenz
Fools That Will Laugh on Earth, Most Weep in Hell by Joseph Randolph
"Orbital Shear," "Group Therapy Chorus," and "End-of-Life Hospice Psychosis" by Joseph Randolph
Janis by Andrena Zawinski
Unredeemed by Kadambari Kaul
"Ars Poetica," "Reecho," and "Folly" by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
"Fourth Elegy," "Missing; or, Fifth Elegy" and "52 Pick Up" by Mark DuCharme
Ballad of Old Days by Chris Klassen
The End or the Beginning of Something by John Cody Bennett
Process of Elimination: Unknowing People by A Sardine on Vacation
"Reality Show," "Magic Time," and "Panoptic" by Joani Reese
Joanie by Robert Leo Heilman
"Suggested Edits," "Inheritance," and "Sestina" by Sarp Sozdinler
"Ghost-Dog Walk with Sadie Through the Forever War," "Ghost-Dog Road Trip with Sadie Where We Witness the Aftermath of Squandered History," and "Ghost-Dog Walk with Sadie after the Apocalypse" by Michael Brockley
On a Tree-Lined Street by JB Malory
Yerushah by Ethan J Rosenberg
The Devil Wears Black by Nico Green
"You" and "The Rain's Colors" by Saltanat Qaiser, trans. Talat Afroze
Seven Paintings, August 2025 by Antoine Prince
"Surreality" and "in the midst of winter rains" by Tobey Hiller
Greenland, Greenland by Gary Percesepe
Going Mobile by Leah Mueller
One-way fares by Ian C. Smith
Endling by Aryan Kaganof
"define expanse when freed," "faceless though seen," and "the dream lost" by Karl Kempton
"Hunger" and "No Lily Pad" by Thomas M. McDade
Eaters of the Dead by Lorelei Greenwood-Jones
seeing differently by Mark A. Fisher
The Burden of Being Pope Sixtus IV (continued) by A Sardine on Vacation
"The Weatherman," "Canal Song," and "The Condition" by Ken Edward Rutkowski
"After Her Diagnosis" and "Dementia and PTSD" by Martha Ellen
"Swimming," "Couldn't Be Happier," and "Dear Consciousness," by D. R. James
"Too Soon" and "the end." by Gloria Mindock
"One Evening in Wilmington with Chekhov's Gun" and "CNN Films Presents Sole Survivor (2013)...Or, It’s Called Survivor’s Guilt and It Never Goes Away" by Shannon Frost Greenstein
"Lost and Found," "Coming Along," and "Never A Time" by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal
"Six Little Darlings" and "Predators and Prey" by David Sheskin
Her New Story by Chris Carrel
Nine Paintings, July 2025 by Carrie Beene

Unlikely Stories Six is still in development.

Bug reports are gratefully received at jonathan AT unlikelystories DOT org.

  • Bookstore
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Bluesky
  • Instagram
  • Threads
  • Tips
  • Subscribe