| Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia from the mid-1980s, Carissa George has always had a deep connection to creativity. One of her most cherished childhood memories is painting alongside her grandmother, using a handmade art bag to store her beloved paints. Despite her early passion, Carissa stepped away from art in her teens, guided toward more “practical” career paths that dimmed her sense of purpose and connection.
What followed was over a decade in a controlling and abusive relationship, which left her confidence fractured and her identity obscured. Her path to rediscovery began in 2007 when, as a single mother, she pursued a nursing career to support her children. Now a theatre nurse of thirteen years, Carissa credits this chapter with rebuilding her confidence and igniting a quiet strength that would later fuel her artistic rebirth.
In 2022, while supporting her son through the aftermath of a toxic relationship, Carissa returned to the canvas. The emotions that resurfaced from her own experience with domestic violence needed an outlet—and art became the vessel. She went on to study with the Milan Art Institute, graduating from their Mastery Program in 2023, where she honed her distinctive style of abstract realism and mixed media.
Carissa’s work explores themes of trauma, resilience, and personal rebirth. Her popular 2023 painting Torn, exhibited in the Recovered Futures Art Exhibition, depicted the emotional struggle of caring for both her son and the father of her children, who experienced divergent mental health journeys. Her deeply personal narrative—intertwined with the reality of losing her ex-partner to suicide in 2006—infuses her art with layered meaning and heartfelt symbolism.
Combining acrylics, oils, collage, and ink, Carissa creates emotionally charged portraits using symbolic gestures, poses, and animal totems. Her current body of work, Fearless Femmes – She is YOU, is a tribute to women reclaiming their identity after abuse. Each painting in the series is a declaration of defiance, hope, and healing—inviting viewers to reflect on their own stories of survival and growth.
Whether working in her studio with music playing and multiple canvases underway, or sharing her process online, Carissa approaches each piece as a portal—for herself and for others—to remember, release, and rise.
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