Carter Taff is a senior who goes to Cartersville High School. Inside of school, he does Chorus and regularly participates in chorus concerts. Outside of school, however, he does many different activities, including playing bass/guitar, playing the piano, painting, and 3D modeling. We discussed how he plans to lead his creative pursuits into the future.

What are you interested in doing for your future?

As of right now, I am still a little lost, but something in either engineering or architecture.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Lots of Instagram and YouTube, but whenever I am feeling productive, I like to draw or paint, 3D model, or play music.

Do you enjoy playing guitar/bass or piano more? Why?

I have more enjoyment playing more because it just feels cooler to play, but I learned a lot more music theory and got a lot more done on the piano.

What made you interested in visual art?

As a kid, I would always draw, and you know that, because well, we both did. I used to draw a lot as a kid and at some point, I got really into drawing realism and that just started to take off. It was a long time of just developing skills and being like “Oh, you’re kind of good at this.” So, I use that as motivation to start painting and everything.

What made you interested in media art, like music?

I just really enjoyed listening to it and I got curious as to how it is made. I started taking piano lessons because I wanted to start playing songs and I realized music theory was a thing and you can understand why songs were made and how they were made, and I started getting into that, and that is really what got me to where I am now.

Have you ever gone through an art block? How did you get through it?

I have had almost year-long art blocks. I would have a few days where I would just draw every single day and I would like what I produce, and then I would create one bad thing and be like “You know what? Eh, I need a break.” And I would take a break for about a month. There was even a time where I would not draw for a year or two, because I was just discouraged and not really interested in it. But right now, it is on and off. Usually, I would let myself take the time off and then would eventually just get back at it. I enjoy the little breaks because when I go back to make more art, I end up enjoying it a lot more than I did before. Art blocks are just an obstacle to overcome but if you keep your head up and overcome it, you will be all right.

What inspired you to do all the things you do today?

There are a lot of specific artists that inspire and motivate me, there is not one answer to it, it is a combination of a lot of things. With painting, drawing, music, it could all be quite different answers. I am very fascinated by a lot of music and art, and I do not just enjoy looking at it, I enjoy producing it myself and challenging myself to recreate the feeling it gives me, so that is what keeps me doing it.

When it comes to music, have you ever made your own piece?

I do not normally release them, but I have made many different chord progressions and even a few entire songs. I will make songs to explore certain musical ideas whether that be certain musical genres or chord progressions or a melody I like.

What made you interested in 3D modeling? 

This is a new thing to me. I looked at painting as something more of a hobby rather than something I can pursue as a future such as a job, but I have thought of something like 3D modelling and realized you can do that and there’s software for it like Blender which is completely free and it is easy to get started on it, so I did that, and I have gotten really invested in it. The thing is, I really love realism, it is just my thing, and with 3D software you don’t have to worry about making the realism yourself, the computer does it for you, you just get to design the scene and you got all the artistic freedom without the bottleneck of physical skill of being able to produce perfect realism.