Craig Carlisle was born in Oklahoma and moved to Ohio where he received his BFA at the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1988. He has lived and worked in NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Columbus. Sought after by art collectors around the world, Craig maintains a studio in his home just outside of Nashville, TN with numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums.

Craig’s main influences include the idea of meditation and contemplation as seen within his semi-abstract paintings aimed at articulating indelible images and evoking an emotional response from the viewer. Of Carlisle’s most well-known, a series of painted heads on large canvases deliberately embody such a scale to empower a room. Each head’s expression has been created intentionally to pull from one’s subconscious. In a common simplicity and relatability, the heads display no identity or gender, in an almost child-like style. Carlisle opts to draw focus on the expression of each head, thus eliminating the personal style we create for ourselves with hair or fashion.

“I never use humans as reference for my paintings, instead I create fictitious characters. Through these, I channel the emotions each of us experience in our daily lives,” says Carlisle.

Created in the early to mid 90s, Carlisle’s series of head paintings helped him become a deeply respected artist who is an original visionary. Though the heads have seen many expressions and stylistic changes over the past two decades, they remain unique works of art.