Toni Carlton

An Appalachian Mountains' native with Western NC Cherokee ancestors, along with creative parents, grandparents, siblings and extended family, Toni Carlton dreamed of being an artist at a very young age.  Learning to weave traditional patterns at the age of 9 from her grandmother, Nellie Carlton, watching her other grandmother, Elizabeth Cook, create beautiful quilts; observing her grandfathers and father build incredible wooden furniture, houses and looms, along with her sister and an uncle who were fine artists was enough inspiration for Toni to follow her dream to become an artist. The sound of her grandmother’s looms was like music as the rhythms related to the patterns and the sound of music…pianos, fiddles, banjoes played by her maternal relatives added to her great love of the creative arts.

 

From receiving the Senior Art Award in High school to Graduating from Appalachian State University with a double major in Art as well as Industrial Arts with a Business minor, Toni carried her love of art through her heart, hands and actions to create her own business -  a weaving studio that later became her fine art gallery, Carlton Gallery. For the last 33 years this business has not only supported her lifelong dream but also the artists that became the gallery’s art family.

 

Through the use of multimedia including transfer images, calligraphy, touch drawings, acrylic paints and gels combined with hand woven fibers created on looms built by her grandfather and father, Toni has developed her own unique style she calls Art Blessings. Art Blessings is an offering of not only the creative arts; but also meditation, expression of energy through movement, sound, voice, writing, prayers and art making.  Each modality adds a different element of expression that can be experienced not only by the artist but also by the viewer.

 

Toni also has a love for Expressive Arts which she uses in a healing form for her own emotions, as well as a talent for others to experience the energy through her work. Toni has been awarded Certificates in Expressive Art Therapy along with many others in the Healing Arts including Reiki, Axiatonal Alignment, Open Heart Meditation 1-4, Reiki Tumo, Inner Heart Meditation, and significant work in the area of EFT, Emotion Code, Energetic Clearing Process and Vocal Toning. Toni has also attended workshops with Deborah Kauf Chapin, the founder of Touch Drawing, which  incorporates the energy of a prayer to form as it is developed with just the touch of hands on thin paper picking up the water based oils from the hard surface behind the paper.

 

Toni Carlton would love for her Art Blessings to hold the space for people locally, nationally and international exposure for the purpose of experiencing the Healing Arts combined with the Fine Art.