Connection Through Confusion with Cartie Whitelaw

Cartie Whitelaw is an Ogden Honors College junior double majoring in anthropology and sociology. He was recently selected to have his own exhibition in the Student Union Art Gallery. 

Inspiration for everything

The main inspiration for this collection are the choices we are faced with when going through a hard time. With each of these pieces, either something crazy happened from my own experience or from others that I have observed. I wanted to show that oftentimes we feel confused, scared and lonely, but the one thing that makes sense within the chaos of life is what and who we connect with. We find ourselves and clarity when making those connections. 

It took about 3-6 hours for each piece, and around 3 years for the entire gallery. 

Favorite piece

This piece is called “Keep Your Heart,” and it’s really special to me because it shows how we get through the hard times in life. When we go through a traumatic, or difficult, experience we are given two choices. We can either harden ourselves, protect our hearts, and not let ourselves connect with other people; or we can continue to leave our heart open, allow ourselves to live life to the fullest, and remain ourselves. You are not defined by the hard things you experience and ultimately decide the person you want to be.

The pants

This is just about feeling uncomfortable, and in those naive stages, that I feel like a lot of Honors College kids can relate to in some way. We’re often trying to achieve things and we feel awkward in these spaces because you’re either super young or don’t feel like you’re doing enough. Sometimes you’re not up to par and that’s okay. You have time to grow.