Carrie Powell has been making art in a variety of mediums since she was a child.  She is an ardent observer and is able to empathically embody felt senses.  Powell is deeply interested in the creative process of art making.  She takes in visual information from her surroundings that move her, melding the visual stimuli with emotional information from her own experiences.  She is interested in how stories within the human condition are woven into new forms, creating a spiritual fuel for expressive inquiry.  Powell’s primary art modalities are drawing and painting, her secondary process involves extensive free association writing, authentic movement, and improvisational music making.

Her background is in visual arts, with a BFA in Painting and Drawing from The University of the Arts and is a master’s level clinical Creative Arts Therapist with an MA in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University. She is a Reiki Master Practitioner, and a certified yoga instructor for children and adolescents.  Powell has worked on creative projects in a variety of different Philadelphia art disciplines.  She was the founding curator of art at Topstitch, in Old City, Philadelphia.  There she honed her craft exhibiting emerging artists from the area.  She is a collaborator in Olive Prince Dance, working extensively with choreographer Olive Prince on developing a creative process they have coined, “In the Round Reciprocity”. This somatic philosophy is an embodied encounter between both artists.  Powell views movement investigations and then personifies them into evocative affect writing and drawings, feeling what the dancers are expressing through movement and translating it into prose.  Prince in turn uses the drawings and prose as seeds for choreographic intention and movement matter with the dancers.  Powell and Prince are working to develop different strategies and processes to take, “In The Round Reciprocity” further into the community to establish their concept in different systems.

Since becoming a mother she has a strong interest in developing ways to integrate her competencies in a unique way that could help support children and families in her community.  She is currently researching possible approaches to fuse Creative Arts Therapy, and the arts into a community space for mothers and children.