CARLOS' STORY
history
curious.
CARLOS' STORY
Born in Los Angeles. Carlos Vera developed his craft as a visual artist at a young age, under the inspiration from his father Rosendo Vera, a commercial artist and abstract painter. Feeling the need to escape the complex distractions of Carlos’s LA youth, he attended a portfolio showing at Otis Parsons and was accepted to The School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts. Carlos spent one year at the Museum School refining his craft while feeling an undeniable urge to live in New York City. While in NYC Carlos learned about working and promoting oneself as an independent artist, this independence became an important asset for surviving as an artist.
Carlos eventually found himself back in Los Angeles where he landed a successful career as a conceptual artist in the film industry. The politics and structure of Hollywood proved to be unsatisfying and a detour from Carlos’s creative path. The departure from the film industry led Carlos to opening his own art gallery in North Hollywood, “Our Story.” During this time Carlos found a passion for impacting communities through creative expression. At the same time Carlos was inspired by Artists for Humanity in Boston, MA, and he wanted to utilize his artwork as a tool to positively impact the community. Carlos then founded the California Artists for Humanity in Los Angeles. Although CAFH had a brief life of 2 years. The experience became a driving force for every endeavor to come.
In 2002, Carlos decided to take his spontaneous free form style of painting to the main stage, engaging the audience in his creative process, producing large scale murals to the sounds of live music and DJ’s. Performance Painting was not being done on this scale at that time, providing him with a niche in the Los Angeles art scene and catapulting him around the globe preforming in major music and art festivals.
In 2008, Carlos purchased a fixer upper craftsman house in Asheville, NC. This provided him with a home base for his career as a traveling live painter and production artist. Shortly after establishing himself in Asheville, Carlos became a care provider. His father moved in with him from California and his mother moved from New Orleans to a home close by. Carlos’s mother was diagnosed with cancer soon after arriving and Carlos’s career as a traveling artist came to a halt, his gigs suffered, and his performance hindered. Carlos motivated by this misfortune began to express his creativity in and around his home, giving it a working title of “The Artist Kitchen.” This home became a happening for the community, many artists gathered, and collaborations were had.
Carlos eventually sold his home, transferring the proceeds to further creative rehabs with other properties. In 2018, after his mother’s passing from cancer and his father establishing sustainability, Carlos made a momentous decision to give up the crutch of alcohol use and charge full force in a positive direction, rebuilding his life and bringing
The Artist Kitchen in Marshall, NC to full fruition.
Education:
School of the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston MA
Film & Commercial Conceptual Artist:
Film - Thief of Always
Film - The Incredible Mr. Limpet
Film - Scary Movie 2
Film - Bones
Commercial - Digital Domain
Festival Production Artist & Live Performance Painting:
Coachella Music Festival - Coachella Valley, California
Bonnarroo – Manchester, Tennessee
Electric Picnic – Dublin, Ireland
Cork Fest – Cork, Ireland
Art Outside Festival – Austin, TX
Maisons De Mode – Lille, France
White Nights – Amiens, France
The Philadelphia Experiment – Philadelphia, Pennslyvania
Live Performance Painting:
Freeform Launch Party – Los Angeles, California
Wicked Weed - Asheville, North Carolina
Moth Light - Asheville, North Carolina
Family Affair - Los Angeles, California
Create Fixate - Los Angeles, California
Cannibal Flower - Los Angeles, California
ArtBar LA - Culver City, California
Conga Room - Los Angeles, California
Bar Fly - Los Angeles, California
Spider Room - Los Angeles, California
Cabana Club - Los Angeles, California
House of Blues - Las Vegas, Nevada
310 Lounge – Santa Monica, California
Zen Arts - Global