Anthony Carpenter is a modern man living in yesterday’s modern world. Dwelling among tiki gods, enchanting women swathed in sarongs and fantastical monsters of his own creation, Carpenter is a working artist who has constructed his personal haven to the backdrop sounds of Martin Denny and Les Baxter. Put simply, this man has a penchant for thrift shops, retro album covers, monster movies of yore and all things tiki. And he’s got an impressive way with a pencil.
“I don’t know exactly how it starts,” says Carpenter. “It was just always there from the earliest of memories. I would lie on the floor in front of the television and just draw from comics and monster magazines. It was just something that I did.” Not much has changed.
Raised among a gaggle of sisters and by an encouraging mother, Carpenter’s formative exposure to art and culture made an impression and formed a lifelong obsession. Carpenter lives in his childhood home, although he has transformed the place, creating an enviable mid-century aesthetic. “That wall there used to have a Klimt print. My friends would comment that the print had a bare breast on it. My mother had no problem displaying something like that in the living room,” says Carpenter. “She allowed me to explore
Frank Frazetta’s work, probably earlier than most mothers would allow.”
A natural artist, Carpenter slogged through the few opportunities available to him in school. “I was always a little ahead. They would be teaching the basics and I’d already be there. I know which end of the pencil you use, one end erases and one end draws,” he says. “This was middle school and high school art classes. They really didn’t have art classes earlier than that. [The atmosphere was] everyone, just do this while the teacher goes and smokes.”
Undeterred, Carpenter went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988 from Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore. His passion was drawing. “Drawing was the original medium. My whole goal was to be either just an illustrator or comic artist-slash-illustrator," says Carpenter. “All my influences were science fiction and fantasy and comic books and old movies. It was always about storytelling, always about how do I tell a story with pictures.”
While Carpenter has recently begun to focus on exaggeration and cartooning, the early influence of Frank Frazetta’s work sent him on the quest of realism. “I thought, I got to be that guy,” he says. “I was always drawing that sort of thing and trying to make everything realistic and correct. I still do that with commissions, because that’s what people want.” Although Carpenter has serious fine art chops, his creative self has let loose. “It’s more fun to play with it that it is to recreate something that already exists.”
While he was initially fixated on realism, Carpenter was always interested in Martians and monsters. “[College students] didn’t have what they have now. [Now] they’re getting to enjoy all sorts of wonderful things that guys like myself were not given the opportunity to. You’d go to school and show them science fiction fantasy stuff and they’d say, ‘what are you doing? Be a fine artist.’”
About five years ago, Carpenter was working on a comic book with a friend, which inadvertently cracked open his true artist self. “I decided to approach it with this more European style and that was the breakthrough moment,” he says. “[All those years], I was trying to fight against this tide that was trying to stop me from what I wanted to do. So you end up sitting in the place you are not supposed to for too long. But I’m there now.”
Even though Carpenter’s epiphanic moment hit in adulthood, he started selling work in high school and never stopped. His first sales were commissions from family friends, generally involving depictions of a son, daughter or beloved dog. He also landed spot illustration work through a local ad agency. Also at that the time,
The Grand Rapids Press ran a teen newspaper section within the regular daily paper called
Connections. Along with friend John Douglas, Carpenter did art for the publication, which became a literal connection. “Every once in awhile, they would get a hold of me from the regular Press when they needed some illustrations,” says Carpenter. “So I would sort of jump up the ladder.”
Since then, Carpenter has had his hands in a myriad of notable projects. Through an acquaintance, Carpenter met the writer and artist Tim Eldred, which led to work on the Malibu Comic series
Robotech: Invid War. As Carpenter tells it, Eldred said, “‘I like the cut of your jib, so why don’t you ink some stuff for me?’ I ended up inking about six issues of that comic book for that company.”
Carpenter used to work for the now defunct H. H. Cutler apparel company, coming up with ideas and creating sketches for garments. “We did a line of Mickey [Mouse] doing extreme sports,” he says. This led to work with the evangelical publishing house Zondervan. The four-book project involved bible stories for teen boys, with a strong focus on action scenes, which Carpenter illustrated inside and out.
Another current and fitting project is for the company Monster Wax, creating collectible, original artwork cards to be included in sets of Spook Show trading cards, which feature images from old horror posters and the like.
More recently, Carpenter has been doing commission work for other creative types in the Grand Rapids art community from posters and logos to CD covers. These folks seek out Carpenter because of his signature retro style. A flier for an upcoming concert featuring The Twistin’ Tarantulas and The Moonrays depicts, naturally, giant spiders and moon men raging battle on an otherworldly planet, with lasers. He has created numerous artworks for Super Happy Funtime Burlesque, from promotional material to T-Shirt art. And, last year, Laura Caprara of
StellaFly Social Media hired Carpenter for a holiday event where he captured observational gestures of party goers.
This month, through the beginning of April, you can get an up close gander at Carpenter’s tiki-inspired creations at The Sparrows Coffee Tea & Newsstand (1035 Wealthy SE) in a showcase called “Welcome to Sparrowdise! An Artventure in Coffee and Tiki!”
You can also see Carpenter’s art, order his hardcover art book
The Sketch Girls and contact him online
here.
Audria Larsen is a freelance writer, entrepreneur and professional entertainer. Her work has appeared in Rapid Growth Media, Revue Magazine and Michigan Blue Magazine. She is the founder of Audacious Hoops, Grand Rapids’ original “hula” hoop company, a member of Super Happy Funtime Burlesque and produces a myriad of art and entertainment ventures.
PHOTOS:
Anthony Carpenter brings the modern past to the present with his illustrations.
Photography by
ADAM BIRD