Carol Tyler at the Carnegie

Carol Tyler, Ponder.

Cartoonist Carol Tyler has created a beautifully detailed art installation as her contribution to With or Without: Challenges, an art exhibition curated by Mary Heider for the Carnegie (Covington, KY), September 5 - November 1 2015. The show presents work created by artists as a way to process and address difficult life experiences or challenges in their lives. 17 artists are included in the exhibit, along with Tyler, and the Woebegone Basketry Guild.

Tyler's installation Pages from the Graphic Novel You'll Never Know is based on her graphic novel trilogy, You'll Never Know. Tyler devoted nine years of her life to telling the emotional story of  her family, particularly her father, a World War II veteran suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), a condition that was formerly known as "soldier's heart."

When I asked her to explain the contents of the installation, Tyler told me, "What is on display is a recreation of my living/workspace for the past 9 years. I created You'll Never Know in the most humble space with no budget and in between care-giving duties, a job, and various other things, mainly health problems. What is seen here is one side of the room (the process) and then the other side is a sampling of the finished art. There are 23 pages on display. The other 350+ pages live in that box below the art that Dad & I made.

The following photos were taken by Carol to document the installation:

Panel explaining the installation

Recreation of Tyler's workspace, including her drawing board.

A display of pages from the books.

Justin Green creates signage.

Tyler and her daughter Julia.

Planning a sequence

Guest sign in book for Veterans. 

Gallery visitor reading 

The photo above, of a gallery visitor reading, holds special significance to Tyler, as she explains: 'The chair was meant to display the jacket from the book, but I love how this guy sat down and read all three books. He said he couldn't stop and that he was stunned and could he please come back during the week so he could look further (made me tearful)."

Other artists included in the exhibition are Soulaf Abas, Julie Abijanac, Lynn Arnold, Ann Burrell, Steven Finke, Tim Freeman, Joe Girandola, Jamie Grauvogel, Barry Gunderson, Laurie Hughes, Kelly Malec-Kosak, Adam Maloney, Derrick Meads, Tim Rietenbach, Dana Saulnier, Nick Scrimenti, Thom Shaw, Carol Tyler, and The Woebegone Basketry Guild.