My name is Brian Cartier, a self-trained multidisciplinary visual artist working in abstract painting, layered resin, mixed media and public art. My practice has grown through experimentation, collaboration and a willingness to follow an idea into unfamiliar territory. Based in New England, I create work for private collections and public spaces, with pieces held by collectors across the United States and abroad.

How I got here

I grew up in North Dakota and moved east at eighteen. Drawing was an early source of confidence and a way to express myself, long before I understood what an artistic life might look like.

My older brother was an incredible artist and my first creative mentor.
Watching him create was what made me want to make art in the first place. His influence began when I was a little kid and stayed with me as I found my own way.

My path back to making art came through clothing and hand-painted sneakers. Working on those small, demanding surfaces helped me rebuild my confidence and opened the door to canvas, exhibitions and a wider creative community.

In 2008, my brother lost the use of his left arm after a motorcycle accident. Standing in his hospital room, I looked at my own hands and realized how quickly the ability to use them could be taken away. This was the artist who had first inspired me to create. What happened to him propelled me to take my own work seriously and use my hands while I could.

Later, opening a shared studio in Dover, New Hampshire brought me into daily contact with other artists. Watching people work, exchanging ideas and trying unfamiliar materials became an important part of my education. That curiosity still drives my practice.

Painting, resin and mixed media

I’m interested in what happens as a piece develops: what an added mark changes, what remains visible beneath it, and when to leave something alone.
Abstraction has taught me to make room for uncertainty. A painting can begin with an intention and move somewhere I couldn’t have planned. I pay attention to that movement, working between deliberate decisions and the possibilities the material presents.
In my layered resin and mixed-media work, maps, paint, found imagery and text occupy different physical depths. Transparent passages let one layer remain visible through another. A fragment can be partly obscured and still change how the whole piece reads. That relationship between what is present and what is concealed keeps me coming back to these materials.

The Dragonfish collection developed from drawings of koi and betta fish into an imagined species. Their forms became increasingly expressive, with individual movement and character. They remain another way for me to explore how observation can become invention.

Art in public spaces

Working with communities has been a significant part of my life as an artist. My projects have included an entrance installation for the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire, commercial murals and a permanent public artwork at Henry Law Park in Dover.
Completed in 2018 with the Dover Teen Center and community participants, the Henry Law Park project brought together handprints from people of different ages and backgrounds. Those individual marks became part of a world map celebrating the city’s cultural diversity. The project received support from the Dover Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and community partners.
Projects like that carry a responsibility I value: making something that people can recognize themselves in, and giving young people a meaningful role in creating it.

What I’m making now

Recent work includes a commissioned collection for Mazon restaurant in Cape Neddick, Maine. In the studio, I’m also developing layered resin work exploring the human brain, thought and creativity.

I continue to make original artwork, offer selected pieces as prints and consider a limited number of commissions. If something here connects with you, I’d love to hear from you.