Carla Cornick is a New Jersey based, multidisciplinary artist, writer and performer whose work explores identity, resilience, and cultural memory through watercolor, oil, mixed media, quilting, and narrative. Born in Okinawa, Japan during her father’s military service, her perspective has been shaped by cultural exchange, travel, and a lifelong connection to storytelling. She studied theology and music ministry at Kent Christian College in Dover, Delaware, and later attended Burlington County College/Rowan College.

Cornick’s work is rooted in a lineage of makers. Her father, a master carpenter following his military service, approached woodworking with the sensibility of an artist. Her maternal grandmother spent 45 years as a seamstress in a Newark, NJ garment factory, and her mother sewed and knitted the family’s clothing by hand—early influences that shaped Cornick’s enduring relationship with fiber, craft, and narrative. Through layered pattern, vibrant color, and expressive figures, her work examines presence, dignity, visibility, and the emotional landscapes people carry beneath the surface.

For Cornick, art is both rebellion and lifeline—a way of resisting erasure, reclaiming voice, and creating connection through beauty and truth. In spring 2026, she helped launch the Waterfront South Gallery at the South Camden Theatre Company in Camden, NJ and now co-curates rotating exhibits and community-centered events throughout its seasons, helping create space for emerging and regional artists. Across visual art, writing—including her novel Braids—and performance, Cornick approaches creative expression as an act of cultural reflection, community building, soul deep healing and personal agency.

Photo courtesy of Nicole Nurthen Photography ©️2026

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Art is my rebellion, my healing, and my soul’s first language. I create to share my truth and help people feel something real.

I love creating emotionally driven art that tells a story. Whether through abstraction, florals, silhouettes, sound or movement, I invite viewers to experience my truth while exploring their own. My work is less about realism and more about emotion, memory, energy, and the human experience.

I believe that inspiration lives in ordinary moments, human emotion, nature, memory, and transformation. Right now I’m deeply inspired by floral portraiture and abstract storytelling. I consider myself a soul-led artist, guided by my intuition, emotions, and the world around me. Sometimes I start with a plan, and sometimes I don’t — but the story always reveals itself through color, texture, and brushstrokes as I paint.