About the Artist: Tina Carter

Artist/Designer Tina Carter's career has grown from a Fine Arts education through to today's current pursuit of performance and artistic expression. Along with running a successful design studio for twenty years, Tina has combined the contemplative/meditative arts of dance, yoga and Buddhism through her day to day evolution.

She is versatile in media style and format including murals, tromp l'oeil, animation and children's illustration Her multi-media experience in corporate theatre encompasses stage and exhibit design, video, speaker support graphics/illustration and product photo styling. Print applications include newsletters, brochures, logos and corporate identity. She is an independent painter, sculptor and time design performance artist. Serving as Nalanda Gate Director for the Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago, she also represents and maintains Fuko Kyudojo. This dojo, the first of its kind in Chicago, follows the teachings of Kanjuro Shibata XX [last official bowmaker to the emperor of Japan]. Tina has trained extensively with this renowned sensei in Kyudo "Way of the Bow" and has been appointed to this region of the United States for the purposes of advancing Heki-ryu Bishu Chikurin-ha version of Kyudo.

As a child, Tina became intruiged with Harlequin upon his first appearance as a 36" table lamp. Harlequin was strong arms in the quiet, holding back shadows atop a nightstand in the twilight hours of her childhood. Finding solace, and a certain courage in the quilted forms of Harlequin, Tina found direction in poetry. The influence of this enchantment through her life spills out in strident arrays of geometry, culminating in the presentation of a new line of floor coverings. Harlequin's charm and courage appears again, displayed in an alchemy of feng shui, geometry, theatre, astronomy, physics, metaphysics, dance, song, poetry, humor, and the bittersweet that is a RubyDesign FloorCovering.

A RubyDesign Hand Painted FloorCovering brings the richness of these combined elements into your home, loft or office. A line of painted rugs that speaks intelligently to attentive audiences, Tina has named these floor coverings "Harlequin."