Caitlin Cartwright : Building Community Through Art
Ohio based artist Caitlin Cartwright explores community, human connection, and social change in her mixed media work. After living in Madagascar, Namibia, and India, Caitlin began to utilize art as a tool for healing and building community. Her vivid paintings of silhouetted figures convey unique visual narratives, and explore themes of isolation and connection.
Hi Caitlin! Tell me about your background and where your creative journey began.
I always knew I wanted to be an artist. After I graduated from undergrad at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), I was still living in Baltimore and faced with the dual realities that one, I had no idea how to make a living through art and two, I felt like something was missing in my life. From this point, I moved to Madagascar, almost on a whim for a year and I learned how much I loved being immersed in a culture other than my own. I loved the feeling of discomfort, pushing myself past my comfort zones, connecting with people that I otherwise wouldn’t have met and having an adventure while collecting a whole new visual vocabulary. After this, I went to Namibia for a few years through the Peace Corps. When I was in the states between being abroad, I was also doing community-building work here. After a residency in North Carolina I decided I wanted to continue my education. I was torn between pursuing an MFA and continuing community work. I ended up getting a masters degree in Sustainable International Development. Almost directly after starting my program, I had a light bulb moment and realized that art and community building can go hand in hand. It was in fact what I had already been doing for years, in Madagascar, doing interactive murals with youth at a sustainability based orphanage, in Baltimore, through after school art programs, starting an arts based business as part of a girls club in Namibia, bringing arts programming to students in rural North Carolina who didn’t have any arts in their curriculum. After this I was able to really focus my path on using art as a tool for healing and community building. I did my practicum in India where I worked with artisans who were often marginalized and documented their process. This helped lead to the initiative that resulted in the city of Ahmedabad gaining UNESCO World Heritage status. Since this, I’ve been seeking out opportunities in my life that directly move me in the direction of this goal, using art as a tool for healing and community building.
How have your paintings shifted and evolved over time?
I’ve always been drawn to figurative narrative painting. For me it’s the best way to tell a story. Over the years, however, my painting has shifted more from portraits or painting specific people to working with silhouetted figures. For me, this is important because silhouettes have specificity and the ambiguity at the same time. The fact that my figures are identifiably people but are lacking many details that define us as individuals is important. It’s a hope that people are able to see themselves in the work. I also use collage elements of photos of human eyes. This for me pushes the idea of being able to see yourself in the piece.
These days, producing in a pandemic has been a really productive time for me and I think that’s because my art practice is a productive way for me to work through things. Themes of human connection and isolation have taken a big place in my work. I’m also starting to notice a darker color pallet coming through.
Where do you find inspiration?
I’m most inspired by what’s around me. By that I mean the people in my community, the patterns and images I see around me, I love looking through local magazines, seeing animals, clothing trends, hairstyles, looking at the sky. All of these things bring inspiration to me. When I moved back to my hometown of Dayton, OH four years ago, I felt a little stifled at first. I think that sometimes home feels so mundane and ordinary. If it’s Ohio, that doesn’t help. Over time though, certain images began working their way into my work; quilts, houseplants, grasshoppers and string lights have all continuously shown up in my paintings recently. By incorporating this specificity, it is always my hope is that the viewer is able to see something of themselves in the work and tap into commonalities that connect us.
What kind of narratives do you create within your work, and how do you use visual imagery to convey a story?
I’m really interested in focusing on small intimate moments that are a snapshot of a larger narrative. I work with what’s around me, a story from the community, something that happened to someone in my life, or something from my own journey. I love the idea of finding connections between people.
What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your studio practice changed over the last few years?
I work full time as director of programs at an amazing non-profit that provides healing art experiences for people with a mental health diagnosis or who are a part of the developmentally disabled community. So I’m in the studio typically in the evenings and weekends. I moved to Ohio and bought a house four years ago. This, for the first time, has allowed me to have a studio in my house and I love it so much. I’m able to get in even a short 30 minutes here and there when I can squeeze it in. I also love if I need a break from painting, I can just shift to doing something else in the house or hang out with my partner and cats and then get back to work right away.
I’ve tried to make it a space where I feel comfortable and inspired, where I would want to be even if I wasn’t painting. I have a lot of plants, I have lighting that I love, sometimes I light a candle. I turn on my podcast (I love a true crime podcast) and have my coffee going and I just paint. It’s one of my favorite things.
Within the last couple years I’ve also devoted more time to the business parts of art, focusing on my website (which is never done), applying to opportunities and grants and seeking out partnerships. Now built into my art practice is this additional work.
How have your experiences living in the U.S and abroad shaped your work?
Where I am physically at any given moment has such a huge impact on my work. Until very recently I have moved around so much. I always say that as an artist, having the experiences of living in so many drastically different locations has really helped to build my visual vocabulary. I love that I have access to whole different sets of imagery that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Another big impact has been the understanding of just how similar we all are at different points around the globe. Someone’s journey may look different on the surface but scratch that top layer and we are all searching for the same things. We are hurt on the same levels and are searching for joy and peace and love in the same way.
What are your future goals and aspirations as an artist?
Oh I love this question! I’ve started being really intentional about laying out goals and then pursuing them full force. I would love to do a project with an international focus. Covid has of course thrown a wrench in this but I love creative problem solving and this is definitely a time that demands us to be innovative. Ultimately my goal is to be able to support myself through my art practice and become my own boss. I want to continue finding ways that art can be used as a healing tool and positively impact my community.
Follow Caitlin on Instagram: caitlincartwright
Website: www.caitlincartwright.com