“There’s just something about moving between writing and art – it’s like turning a prism.”

Shapeshifters Q&A | Discussing art, identity, and chasing new challenges with Carly Palmer.

Welcome (or welcome back!) to Multifaceted, a weekly newsletter about finding delight and direction in a creative life made up of many different interests.

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For the first installment of Shapeshifters – a series of in-depth interviews with fellow multi-hyphenates – I’m delighted to introduce you to Carly Palmer. 

Carly is a collage artist, wordsmith, makeup artist, and friend who paints in a kaleidoscopic style, so she couldn’t be a more perfect subject for this month’s theme: The Kaleidoscope Issue.

I first learned about her work through an ad for a collage event she was hosting at a local coffee shop. Coffee and collage in good company sounded right up my alley! I immediately registered and then started messaging Carly on Instagram (@artfullycurious). 

Since then, we’ve shared quite a few multifaceted creative chats. So, I’m thrilled to have her on board to kick off this Q&A column! 

Our conversation – fueled by gelato and spring sunshine – touches on topics so many of us can relate to:

• The role of continuous learning in creative growth

• How labels impact how we’re (mis)understood

• Letting artistic and intellectual curiosities meet and mingle

• Chasing new challenges after achieving success

Thank you SO much, Carly, for such a wonderful and inspiring conversation! 

Shapeshifters: Meet Carly

Carly Palmer is a collage artist, abstract painter, and writer who works throughout the Chicago area. Her work features echoes of psychology, symbolism, and surrealism, with editorial and art historical allure. She’s a resident artist at Water Street Studios in Batavia, Illinois, where she also curates the Community Gallery and serves as a School of Art Outreach Instructor.

As a writer, Carly composes ekphrastic poetry that expands on the themes and ideas in her artworks. Plus, she sends out a newsletter called Artful Reflections that features musings on the artmaking process.

In true multifaceted fashion, there’s more to her story: Carly completed a two-year Jungian psychology studies program in 2023 and has since presented her arts-based papers at related conferences.

And, this year she’s celebrating 10 years in business as an acclaimed wedding and bridal makeup artist. 

Jess: You operate across a LOT of creative facets – there’s collage, painting, writing and poetry, bridal makeup, community building, and art instructing… not to mention just-for-fun outlets like home decor and personal style. What an amazing mix! Are there any common themes or threads running through the work you do? 

Carly: Thank you! The tie with all of them is just following my own curiosity and being open to getting inspired.

For a long time, I wanted to separate my makeup from my art and writing. But I do find there’s a common thread of connecting with others. Co-creation has always been a part of the journey – whether that’s through the community gallery or through makeup.

And with pretty much everything I engage in, there’s a learning curve. I like to figure things out. When COVID happened and there was a slowdown in my makeup business, I started getting more into art. But I had to fully adopt beginner’s mind because I didn’t know painting. 

I’ve realized how important that is to my process to not only be able to figure out different tools and tricks but also to explain why I like or don’t like them.

Jess: Your journey looks pretty straightforward on paper: You started doing bridal makeup and found success. Then, when the pandemic hit, you pivoted to collage and art instruction. But I’m sure in reality it hasn’t been so linear. Is there more to it?

Carly: What a lot of people don’t know is that I wasn’t drawn to working with brides. 

It kind of happened that way, for two reasons: When I was in makeup school, the clean aesthetic and precision that are in my art now lent themselves to bridal work. And I live in a top wedding market, so there’s a lot of work to go around. 

But – fun fact – I originally wanted to go into special effects makeup, like for horror movies. I can do a really good bloody look – which is funny because I can’t watch gore! 

Jess: Wow, I would never have guessed! When I took stage makeup classes, those were the projects I was initially least interested in because of the gore. But looking at a photo of a bruise three days on versus seven days on, it’s very different – so it’s all about color matching and recreating the little marks. It’s fascinating.

Carly: Exactly. And I was able to pull out ahead in bridal makeup because I knew how to match skin tone. 

Jess: That makes so much sense. I see how that type of precision shows up not only in your makeup and painting but in your meticulously hand-cut collages, too. When you’re working in any one of those areas, what’s the main driving force that gives you momentum?

Carly: It’s always the idea that excites me the most. Even though my paintings are more abstract and my collages are more surreal, there’s always some underpinning of an idea at the beginning. I can linger on an idea for days before I even start something. And oftentimes it will morph into something completely different. 

Jess: When you have lots of ideas buzzing around, do you act on all of them? Or do you have a filtering process that helps you decide what to pursue?

Carly: I’ll write ideas down in a notebook, or take photos of things that inspired me and look at them later. But I can also just be with an idea and I’ll follow the energy of it to see if there’s alignment. 

I don’t tend to get overwhelmed by feeling like I have to do it all. It’s more that I get overwhelmed by the feeling of having to do the thing perfectly. 

Jess: Fast-forwarding from the idea to the end result, how would you describe your style and what you want to leave people with? 

Carly: I would love people who look at my work to feel a complexity to it. Where they can’t quite grasp it but they still connect with it. That enigmatic feeling where you just can’t place something but, you know you know it – I love that. 

Jess: Speaking of complexity, you add more layers to your collage work (pun intended) by writing poetry and essays inspired by the same themes and motifs. How would you describe the relationship between your written and visual work? 

Carly: I like creating my art, then picking out each symbol and amplifying it through writing. There’s just something about moving between writing and art for me – it’s like turning a prism. 

Jess: I’m sure you know how tricky labels like “artist” and “writer” can be when there’s more than just one side to what you do. When you and I first met, we clicked over being fellow “scanners” – a term from Barbara Sher’s books that most people probably aren’t familiar with. How do you deal with the complexities of these labels when you introduce yourself and your work? 

Carly: With makeup, I felt so defined by my job and how I served other people. My whole identity was about fading in the background. And that was the role, to create on somebody, for somebody. 

But with my own art, that’s not the experience I want. I think there are some stereotypes with the word “artist” that don’t fit and some that do. Same thing with “writer.”

I think my dance is always figuring out where I feel misunderstood – and what I don’t do because of that. So, that’s the thread I’m unraveling. You’re inherently going to be misunderstood, the more you put yourself out there.

Jess: It’s interesting to hear you explain it that way. Labels are supposed to help other people understand us a little better, but that doesn’t always work. You can say “I’m an artist” and still be misunderstood.  

Carly: It’s tricky. I think “scanner” is a good one, but a lot of people don’t know what that means. I remember you knew what that was and I was so surprised! 

That, and things things like personality tests – they help either validate my experience or support connections with other people. But if I rest too far into something, like, “this is how I am,” or “this is who I am,” then it becomes stagnant. So, labels are helpful when they’re validating, but they can be binding. 

Jess: I’m sure when you were “Carly, makeup artist, period,” that was pretty limiting.

Carly: Yeah, it was. And I worked under my maiden name, not Palmer. I was like Dr. Seuss. But at the time, I liked that separation. Now, it’s me – it’s all me. It’s a different way of taking up space.

I think that points to the real questions with labels: Where do you take up space, and where do you recede? Where do you feel like you’re taking up too much space?

Jess: Absolutely. When it comes to “artist” and “writer,” people fear taking up too much space with those labels. But I like this idea that labels can be an entry point to understanding. They don’t have to be the whole story – and they never really are. That takes some of the scariness out of the labels.

Carly: Yeah!

Jess: So, what’s your experience been like as a “scanner” navigating a world where we’re expected to stay in one lane? And what was it like transitioning from makeup artistry to fine art?

Carly: I think that message – pick your job, stay in your lane – is meant to be guiding and not a bad thing. But when you veer off that path, people are going to question it. 

I worked in corporate for a while. Then, when I first started makeup, I worked for a lot of different teams and got experience. Eventually, I thought, “I could do this on my own.” I kind of jumped and I didn’t have this elaborate business plan. I thought, “I’m gonna make this happen,” and I did. 

I’m making it sound easy – it was not easy. But trusting that I could be self-directed is all I really needed. 

Before COVID, I was at the height of my makeup career. I made a full-time income. I had constant referrals from other vendors. I was published. I had hundreds of five-star reviews – I had achieved all success on paper, but there was a nagging feeling. It wasn’t enough. For a long time, I just shamed myself that I should be grateful, I should be happy.

But I needed to be challenged. So, when art came around, and COVID wiped out my business for a couple of years, I had a chance to see what was missing. It was the challenge and the creativity. Not that I didn’t like makeup, but it reminded me of how important transformation and challenge were in my work. 

Jess: You said “when art came around” – how exactly did that happen? I know you didn’t have an especially artistic upbringing, so it must not have been the obvious choice. 

Carly: No, it’s odd. I remember making art in elementary school – but not in high school or college – and I went to an arts school! My creativity just showed up in different ways before, with makeup and the marketing aspect of it, and other ways of being in the world, for others.

I don’t think at those times I was ready to make the art that I’m making now. Because it requires a certain amount of vulnerability, and a certain amount of being okay with being misunderstood. I don’t think I would have been ready for that back then.

I think it just needed to grow into this route. It’s like that saying, “What you’re looking for is looking for you, too.” I kept having visions of painting – I don’t know why. I had some dreams and I kind of thought it would just translate pretty easily. 

So, I did one of those paint and sips… and I hated it. I mean, it was fun for the connection, but I just didn’t enjoy the process. I couldn’t get it right. So I thought I didn’t like painting, that I wasn’t good at painting. I didn’t realize it was because I didn’t really want to paint what was in front of me.

Then I just went out one day and bought a bunch of random brushes, cheapy paints, and paper. I was overwhelmed because there was so much out there. So, I asked myself, “If I was with a five-year-old, what would I buy?”

Then I went home and I sat on the floor and painted. It was very childlike and I just played for hours, that’s how it started. 

Jess: I love the idea of getting in touch with a childlike sensibility, even though painting wasn’t necessarily something you did frequently as a child. After those initial painting sessions, you then took the Art2Life online painting program, right?

Carly: Yeah – I think I started painting at the end of 2019 and then I took Art2Life in 2021. But that parallels what I did in makeup. I took a professional, structured program so I could learn. It’s interesting to look back at the parallels and appreciate them in a different way. 

Jess: Right – so you were using the positive experiences and patterns that already worked for you and applying them to the next thing. There are a lot of similarities between both sides of that creative pivot, even though the connections wouldn’t be obvious to an outsider. 

Carly: I hope it helps normalize the experience – I think when you tell people the root of the story, it makes it more human.

I’m not the kind of person to say, “Rah-rah! You can do it, too – just be yourself!” That’s just not my energy. Because it’s hard to be yourself.

I feel like most of us are walking around not knowing what’s going on. Instead of pretending we have it all going right, we can normalize the messy parts. I still struggle with perfectionism, I can be hypocritical of my work, but for better or worse, that creates in the room, too – it’s a fellow traveler.

Jess: So, where did your collage practice enter into the journey?

Carly: I was working at Water Street Studios already, and I was doing some painting. A friend’s friend came in – he was a collage artist. With a very different style – much more chaotic, in a good way. He would rip and tear and use very different materials. 

But there was something about it that really inspired me. I went home and, much like I did when I bought the paints, I cut out of magazines for like, five hours. I could tell it was the start of something. And then it just snowballed.

Jess: I’ve seen your room full of magazines – you must have millions of them! 

Carly: Oh, yeah. That’s a cool thing, too, about collage – it’s very approachable and accessible. And once people know that you like magazines, they’ll give you them. Now, whatever I don’t use in my art, I can use in my outreach classes so they keep getting new life.

Collage is a very different process for me – it’s much more intuitive and more about storytelling. It’s like bringing something into focus, even though I don’t know what it is. It’s just a very different way of working, but I like it.

Jess: You mentioned bringing things into focus – I know kaleidoscope imagery is big in your paintings, so it’s cool to see how that theme shows up in your collage work, too! And it sounds like you’ve found a nice balance across different processes. It’s a lot to ask for just one creative outlet to tick all the boxes.

Carly: That’s when you run into trouble, I think, because you run your whole identity into one medium.

Jess: When you have so many creative channels running, how do you decide what to keep to yourself versus what to monetize?

Carly: It’s tricky once you bring money into it. It’s vulnerable putting yourself out there and it’s important to make sure you create something just for yourself, too. I form attachments to my work and I’ve tried to create things that are more impersonal or that I’m okay with selling, but then I don’t like them as much because they’re not me. 

For me, it’s important to have multiple revenue streams. If I lean too heavily on one thing, I put extra pressure on myself. So, what I do now is teach different classes – including outreach classes which are funded by grants that pay the artists. I still do some weddings, too. I sell some of my collages and paintings. 

And a new thing I have coming soon is a self-published book. I’m really enjoying the idea of the book because I can offer my artwork and my writing together at a more accessible price point. 

But there’s not one path to do it. Some people do prints, or mugs – there are just so many different ways to sell your work. I think that’s something I’ll forever be navigating.

Jess: Right. And you haven’t always listed your pieces for sale when they’re exhibited. What’s that been like?

Carly: We live in a world where people constantly question why something’s not for sale. People try to convince me that my work is worth being for sale. And to me, it’s it’s not even about that. I believe in my work and what I do. But people try to convince me of its value in terms of a monetary number.

Jess: Meanwhile, society wants us to work for the exposure, where there’s no monetary value and we should be grateful to be doing it! 

Carly: Yeah, it’s interesting. The thing is, you don’t have to be full-time at everything. I know several people who have full-time jobs and still make their art. It all just depends on what feels authentic to where you are now. 

Jess: On that note, how do you structure your income streams and schedule while keeping up with different creative pursuits?

Carly: I’m very organized, but it’s always a work in progress. I like time-batching my tasks because it helps me focus on what I’m doing. 

I also think it helps to start out by doing the things that are most meaningful to me, whether they bring in income or not. If I do my own thing first, I’m much more present for other people. In the afternoon, my mind isn’t as much in a dreamy state, so I’d rather do the work that requires more of a logical brain at that time.

Jess: I love the idea of putting your passion project first. So many people do the exact opposite – they save it for last when they’re feeling depleted. Speaking of passion projects – we haven’t touched on your interest in Jungian psychology yet! What can you tell us about the program you completed, and how that fuels the art you create?

Carly: Oh, yeah! The Jung Institute of Chicago has a two-year program that brings together both clinical folks – therapists, psychologists, medical doctors – and people like me who are interested in psychological processes. Jung’s work can be really accessible, and it was great to meet other people who want to talk about at a deeper level.

It weaves into most things I do, and it really allowed me to bring in a more intellectual nature to my work. I don’t have a master’s degree in psychology – but I thought about it. Like, do I want that? Do I need that? No, because I’m already living that life. For someone who is achievement-oriented, it’s a reminder that I don’t have to get all the bells and whistles to be allowed to do what I want.

I briefly went to grad school, for social work. I knew I wanted to help others, and this was before I was doing makeup full-time. I was kind of lost and not sure of where I wanted to go. I very quickly realized it wasn’t the path for me and I trusted that something else would turn up. 

Jess: What advice can you share with other multifaceted creatives and lost souls who are trying to find their way?

Carly: The only way out is through. For a long time, I felt very lost within a career that I was successful in – and I was hard on myself. Now, I’m speaking from the other end of that tunnel.

You can always change directions. And if you’re going into a new career or type of art or something, you don’t have to make a grand, sweeping gesture. It’s more sustainable to do little efforts. 

I was briefly in real estate and I knew very quickly that this was not the world for me, because I did a small part-time job to see if I liked it, before getting a license and going full-throttle. And I’m a full-throttle kind of person so I have to slow myself down. Go slower. Make sure you like it before you invest your time and money.

Another one is to find ways to connect with other people like yourself. The hardest part is hearing crickets. And the crickets are loud, but just taking small little gestures – going to events in person or introducing yourself online – can help you put yourself out there. 

This next one might sound a little silly, but it makes a big difference when you’re in the thick of it: Make a list of all the things you did – all those little promises you kept to yourself. I have a list somewhere from when I first started making art to remind myself that I was continually showing up. It builds that self-worth and confidence. So when you do get out there and people do see you, you’re not going to hang your hat on every single reaction, good or bad.

Jess: I love this advice. You put yourself out there and then you get weirdos like me signing up for your classes!

Carly: You did just what I would have done! And then we connected through that. It’s how I’ve met a lot of people. 

Jess: One last question – what’s the best way for people to learn more about you and your work?

Carly: My Instagram, @artfullycurious, is probably a good place to start because I’m most active on there, meaning you’ll see new material. There’s my website, too, where you can learn more about my upcoming book. My newsletter is a good way to read my stream of consciousness, kind of like in this interview. And, if you’re in the Chicago suburbs, come check out an exhibit – I’m always doing something!

More this month from Multifaceted

Here’s what else you’ll find in the kaleidoscope-inspired June issue:

• Announcement | Moving to a magazine-style format 

• Shapeshifters | Q&A with Carly Palmer (this article!)

• Creative Compass | On twisting the viewfinder to examine your creative path (coming next week)

• Creative Living | Exploring a kaleidoscope of color through fashion as collage (coming in the last week of the month)