I Hope My Dreams Are As Nice As Carson Teal’s
Like most people, most of the time, I hate Instagram.
Except sometimes, randomly, as though the META gods are looking down on you just about to hover and delete, it serves you something beautiful. Carson Teal’s art was just that for me. One of his incredible lamps illuminated my screen and I caught myself saying ‘wow’ out loud. Then the more I looked into him the more I fell in love with his work. It’s ethereal, ancient but oddly futuristic, vivid yet nuanced. I hadn’t seen anything like it and immediately reached out to him for a chat. Hailing from Canada, home to the nicest people on earth, I knew we would get along and took it upon myself to ask him questions that probably aren’t normal for someone you’ve never met. But hey, what’s the point of working for this magazine if you can’t be a little weird sometimes? Chat below.
Hi Carson. What do you tell people that you do because I know there’s a bit going on?
I’m a stained glass artist. I used to be more of a digital artist, an animator. Then over the past couple of years I started collaborating with my partner who is a ceramic artist. She inspired me to get into stained glass, actually. And then when I started experimenting with it I found the medium really intuitive and allowed me to bring the digital elements from the computer and bring it into the glass by creating new collages and assemblages and that’s the main focus now.
I know stained glassing is particularly niche within Australia just in terms of how many people are into it, all the tools and everything available. Is that the same in Canada too?
It’s getting more popular now. It’s actually kind of trending. More people are trying it and getting into it but for the most part when I started it was pretty low key. I didn’t know any stained glass artists. But when I moved to where I am now from Toronto I stumbled into a stained glass store, just looking for some materials to use for another project. It was just like the local craft shop and that’s how I got interested in it.
Did someone teach you how to do it or did you just figure it out for yourself?
Yeah I just picked it up myself. The guy in the craft shop gave me some tips but yeah just mostly looking it up on YouTube, looking at other people’s work and trying to figure out how they made it. The first couple of months I was awful at it. Just absolutely terrible. My technique wasn’t there at all but I just kept practising and learning my own way.
Can you talk a bit more about the themes and that style within your work just because when you look at your previous animation and design work, you can see your style carried across to the stained glass too?
Yeah I think something I’ve done throughout all the work I make is that I often recycle things and layer images into work. I’m always pulling from an archive of images or photographs or designs that I’ve already made and repurposing them. So it’s kind of the same sort of image underneath but layered in a new way. And then I just approached it the same way but bought it into the glass medium. I’ve always been inspired by symbols, hieroglyphs and petroglyphs and I was doing a lot of 3D rendering so it really came together with the glass. I like creating my own little universe.
Yeah I really like the motifs and symbols you use within your work.
Yeah I’ve never really been great with writing so it’s my version of my own language I guess. I’m really inspired by the rock carving kind of petroglyphs and then just combining it with alien, futuristic ideas. Referencing both ancient and modern.
This is a bit of a left of field question - but are you someone that remembers your dreams?
I do, I think so. I mean I don’t have a tonne. I’m not vividly dreaming every single night or anything but there’s definitely some standout dreams. One with an old professor. That happens a lot. Or just someone I know that comes into the scene randomly.
Okay so your dreams are completely unrelated to your art then?
(Laughs) Yeah I don’t think there’s a correlation.
I just wanted to ask. I warned you it was a random question. I don’t remember my dreams but if I did I just kinda hope that is what your art is like. Seems like a nice place to be.
My art is more inspired by daydreaming I think. Being in the garden and in nature. I can’t say many things that come to me in a dream.
So not very Paul McCartney of you. I don’t know if I can ask at this point if you’re a tripper?
I’m tripping over this question.
This happens a lot. It’s a safe space.
Now that I think about it, actually there has been a standout dream that inspired an installation piece that I did. I remember walking into a room, in the dream, and there were all these moving lights and construction everywhere which had a direct influence on the work I made. But it wasn’t like I woke up and scrambled to write that shit down like an epiphany or something, I think just as I was working on it I had the idea in my head because I’d already seen it in my dream.
Are you into mythology?
Yeah, for sure. I’m trying to think of a specific example. Maybe like tarots?
Cool. My friends give me tarots all the time. Always get the upside down ones. Never know what it means but respect whatever anyone is into. You said nature is a big inspiration to you too? Any other inspirations?
I’m inspired by spirituality. I’m not religious at all but that kinda higher power concept. You know, but not god?
I get what you’re saying.
Sorry I feel like I’m not giving the best answers.
I think the tripping question really threw you. I'm so sorry. These are weird questions. What about if we go back to the nature part? How does nature impact your work?
Yeah I’m super fortunate to now be living in a rural setting. Before I was in the city for over ten years but coming here was really the catalyst for the stained glass. It kind of happened as soon as my girlfriend and I arrived here. It’s been an amazing experience to be out of the city. To take long walks and lots of breaks and sit next to the forest. When I was living in the city I was always conscious of making time to go on rural trips and just recharge but to actually live here permanently in this quieter, slower life has been unreal. It’s definitely where I feel the happiest and most comfortable.
I totally understand that. I tried to do the city thing and I just remember going back out into nature after big weeks away and being like holy shit, I can breathe again. All the buzz has just dissipated and everything is so much clearer.
Exactly.
It must be really good for your art?
Yeah I think slowing down just really forced me to figure things out, you know? Like what was important to me and how I wanted to spend my time. From that I realised working with my hands was something I was really drawn to and got a lot of joy from.
Made in collaboration with Kaley Flowers.
Nature ey. Opposite of that - what excites you about the design world at the moment?
I think for me now that I’m doing physical work, I’m thinking about spaces differently. Like with my lamps, how it works functionally and the lighting design. There’s a whole other level of challenge to design for a physical space. To think about where it’s going to live, how it operates, what it is used for. That’s been a really interesting thing for me personally. To find a way to integrate art into a functional piece, yeah.
And that’s what the focus on your work is now?
Yeah I’m in the middle of developing new work now. Just put out a lot of new lamps recently. Hopefully some shows later in the year. I haven’t even really shown a lot of my work yet so I’m excited to share that at some point. My partner is a ceramic artist so I think we will do some kind of combined show.
Plug it below.
It’s still a while off but keep your eyes peeled.