Photos courtesy of Megan Leigh Barnard
Lauren Carter Best was diagnosed with Type 2 bipolar disorder when she was 22, but instead of letting the condition define her, she used it to create art.
Her love for art started when she was in elementary school.
“I drew a picture of the universe and I was so proud of myself. I thought it was so wonderful,” Carter Best says.
A-OK
Even at a young age, she had a unique perspective on life and wanted to share it with anyone and everyone. She went to The Ohio State University for her masters in social work and became a therapist. She loved it but, after a while, wanted to find something that incorporated her passions.
Carter Best says that she started to tell herself, “OK. Lauren, you’re just gonna have to do whatever you can to survive emotionally and mentally and spiritually. And, for me, that was making large paintings. Then I got a job at a local pet store and I love that.”
Carter Best loves working with the animals because they help her emotionally.
“They’re therapeutic and fun and interesting and innocent,” Carter Best says. “Just being able to bond with them on a daily basis is so rewarding.”
Besides the pet store, she works closely with Community Refugee and Immigration Services. She says they receive multiple grants to create murals in schools.
“I work with them to design the mural and then help implement it. We’ll get the community involved, so a lot of the kids, their parents and teachers can come help work on painting the mural, which is really fun,” Carter Best says.
Getting to where she is now in life wasn’t an easy process. Carter Best says she tried six or seven different medications, along with therapy, so that she could live her life. Art helped her cope with her bipolar disorder.
“Human suffering, in general, is what inspires my artwork and my own form of suffering has manifested in bipolar disorder, and that was kind of what I worked with,” Carter Best says. “But I guess when I’m doing art, it’s more of tapping into the universal pain that humans feel.”
Carter Best didn’t think she could work a regular nine-to-five art job. She wanted to pursue art, but didn’t think she could make a living with it.
“My art was highly dependent on my mood and inspiration that sprang from both moods, and still is to a certain extent,” Carter Best says. “I will just do it in my free time, but never really think that I would be able to do anything with it, because there would be periods of six months where I couldn’t create anything. I would be in just a deep depression that nothing would come and I didn’t think would ever come back.”
Lauren Carter Best painting the "Space Mural" at Columbus Global Academy
While Carter Best has been fortunate in terms of the resources available, she knows there are people out in the world who do not have access to those resources.
“That’s why I like the idea of large-scale art and what I want to do is get more pieces out in areas that may need more,” she says.
One of Carter Best’s murals by the Gravity apartments in Columbus portrays a woman who has her hand over her chest, showing self-care. Carter Best hopes that when people look at this painting, they will think it is okay to take care of themselves.
“My hope is that people walking down the street will see it and be like ‘It’s OK, I can look at this piece of art and take a breath,’” Carter Best says.
Enduring a lot over the years, Carter Best now has something new to smile about – her and her spouse, Casey, are expecting their first child.
“That’s going to be a whole other journey,” Carter Best says. ‘But I’m excited to see what kind of art comes from that.”
Bethany Schultz is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
