This year’s Small Business Saturday on Nov. 29 meant a little more to artist and business owner Everett Carter.
Carter, a Vietnam War veteran, was selling some of his art on a day when Americans are encouraged to support small entrepreneurs and shop local. However, Carter’s displays at Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment in Huntsville, Alabama, carry a deeper meaning than just paint on canvas. They’re depictions of memories – both painful and joyous – of Carter’s time in Vietnam.
Carter paints a story of sacrifice, surviving war when many of his buddies did not, and how old wounds can heal through a creative outlet.
For more than a decade, Carter has owned and operated Studio 117, or “The Vivid Studio,” as he likes to call it. While tenants come and go, Carter is among the mill’s oldest, and he intends to keep making art that conjures emotions often too grueling to talk about. Instead, he lets his paintbrush do the talking.
Igniting a Lifelong Passion
Growing up in Huntsville, Carter was known as the boy with the sketchpad. Stuck to him like an appendage, he carried it wherever he went, often sketching during his bus rides home from school. That’s when a neighbor asked him a question that would alter his life.
“I got off the school bus — you know, we rode the school buses back in the day — and I always carried my little sketch pad,” Carter told Fox 54 in Huntsville. “An elderly lady in the community called me over. She was going through (the sketch book), and she said, ‘Is this one for sale?’”
Young Carter’s eyes turned into saucers. He couldn’t believe someone wanted to pay for his artwork. He didn’t skip a beat, though, taking advantage of a rare opportunity.
“I said, ‘Yes, Ma’am, it’s for sale.’ She went into her house and came out with a purse and handed me $10. I’m like, ‘Wow.’ I had bubble gum for a month.”
While $10, especially back in the 1960s, could buy a lot of bubble gum, Carter’s first art sale went beyond a monetary transaction. It affirmed his unique talent, which would become a form of therapy later in life.
Called to War
Carter’s artistic aspirations were put on hold when he was drafted to serve in the Army, eventually being sent to Vietnam. He was 21 years old, married and had a child on the way.
As a sergeant, he witnessed the horrors of war up close, losing friends in battle. Despite being wounded, he survived a year in combat, 1968-69. The mental toll, however, lasted decades.
“You know, everything I’d gone through... I mean, I was blessed to be alive, but physically I felt that I was okay, but mentally not,” Carter said.
After the war, Carter returned home and was looking forward to life after the Army. But he struggled to adapt as a civilian. Carter yearned for an outlet to process what he had been through in Vietnam.
An old friend, art, came calling.
Healing Through Art
He picked up the paintbrushes again and felt at home. At first, returning to art was just a therapeutic release. Carter had no plans to sell his work. He simply wanted to honor comrades lost in Vietnam, processing his grief on paper.
“Art brought me back in a way,” Carter said. “When you are put on this earth, everybody has a calling. My calling is art.”
Eventually, he decided to purchase space in Lowe Mill, showcasing his work and offering it for sale. From beautiful landscapes to powerful memorials, each painting shows how far Carter has come from his dark days in Vietnam.
“Every time you hit that brush with the canvas... it’s striking at your heart, because you’re putting something there that’s a memory, that’s pain for you,” he said.
Carter believes art is more than just items to hang on walls to decorate homes. It’s a human experience everyone can relate to.
“Some type of art is in all of us,” Carter said. “We’re all artists in some form or fashion. So do what you love.”
