Based in California, Caroline, an artist of British descent has lived in LA for the last 20 years, she began her career as an artist on the streets of Spain and spent the next thirty years traveling lands far and wide throughout Asia and Europe and into America. Her work has always been allegorical, drawing on cultural mythologies, portraits, sketches on the road and landscapes.”

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The act of creating Formations out of clay was a journey in itself. The sculpting allowed the artist to ‘travel’ across surfaces, spending time in the crevices, shaping the clay, and building the form. 

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To create these strikingly organic works, the artist spent countless days with her subjects in the Mojave: “Like the Formations themselves, I exposed myself to the wind, the heat, and the sounds of the desert. What stayed with me is the novelty of these miraculous forms and how they have come together.” 

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Caroline said, “The way I’ve composed the pieces relates to the spatial conditioning of the groupings. Like a family grown together, or breaking apart, they stand or lie in various stages of light — unified, cracked, still proud and strong.”  

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The fired clay sculptures have purposefully undergone a process not dissimilar to the actual life cycle of the Mojave monoliths. The ceramics are created with different bodies of clay – primarily using Black Mountain Sculpture or Laguna Clay, which has “grog” in it. These types of clay have a denser mixture with a type of granulation within, which allows for forms to be created in height. 

 

Experience, technical skill, and physical strength are required to create such large pieces. The sculptures are hand built using a unique technique that Caroline crafted, combining slab building and sculpture. The ceramics were then fired at Cone 10 averaging around 2300 degrees Fahrenheit creating their unique surfaces.

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“According to Zen, when our human energy and power is at its optimum, we are poised to attain a state of calm and are able face life with equanimity and sincerity. I view the beautiful and living Formations in my series in this manner.”

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Within the common contemporary ceramics, Caroline’s hand in this medium is extraordinary. We have fallen in love this the work and recommend it highly to our friends and collectors. 

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Caroline has achieved surfaces in her ceramics which defy convention. Look closely and you’ll discover nuance, variation, texture, undulation, and surprise. They draw you in, ask that you touch, compel your imagination, and stimulate wonder. Akin to the best painting, “Formations” allows for endless explorations, enduring visual pleasure and a connection to the vast history of the earth.