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Painter, Caroline Wright considers herself lucky to have been raised in an artistic family, where “creativity and individuality have always been nurtured. As a kid I always drew, painted, and made doll clothes; even dressing myself was always an event.”
Thinking she wanted to be a fashion designer, Caroline attended the Pratt Institute in New York for summer classes in fashion design during high school. At that time she also had her own handbag company, “love c”. “Then I went to Brown University for college, because I wanted a good all-around education. I majored in Visual Art and Art History, and worked in the costume shop for the theater.” It wasn’t until her senior year that she became very interested in painting, but she was still trying to combine it with fashion. “Then I moved to Paris, and got worn out by fashion and thrilled about art. I ended up spending a semester at a program in Brittany, the Pont-Aven School for Contemporary Art, in order to see if I would get tired of painting if it was all I did, and I didn’t.”
The first subjects of her paintings were the vast spaces like she had experienced in the cathedrals of Italy, where she studied her junior year of college. “Those halls gave me an understanding of the sublime, a connection to something spiritual that had nothing to do with religion.” She can’t explain why she wanted to depict that space on canvas, but that’s what she did for a while. “But while some of those were good studies of color, and had a sort of charming non-perspective, they didn’t capture space the way I wanted.” That is when Caroline began to paint abstract space.
Caroline paints “to feel free”. She feels sheer joy and total involvement while painting, and when she sees a great painting by any artist from the last 100 years, “it’s that sense of freedom in their language that excites me”. Caroline also wants the audience to experience this feeling of freedom from her work. “I want people to find a possibility they hadn’t considered, and to trust their own senses.” She draws on the outdoor world for her inspiration, “the colors and patterns of the natural world are endlessly surprising”. “Walking around Lady Bird Lake gives me all kinds of ideas about light reflection, and I head out to West Texas as much as possible, where it’s all sky.”
Caroline is also inspired by many artists, and more all the time. “I’m always finding new artists I adore.” Cy Twombly, she says, is her hero, “it can’t be true, but to me, he seems completely free”. “Agnes Martin is my mentor, her writings are such elegant, honest guidance, and Pierre Bonnard's understanding of light is fabulous.” As for younger artists, she says, “I love Jules de Balincourt, Peter Doig, and Julie Mehretu”.
Her favorite thing about being an artist is “getting to be alone a lot, to make my own schedule and spend all this time thinking about truth and beauty and how to be in the world”. If she weren’t an artist she says “I’d love to own a vintage boutique or a little café. But then I’d have to be available at all these set times, and that’s just what I don’t want to do!” Caroline’s motto is “don’t do things you dislike on a regular basis”.
She is starting to be an art collector. “I like trading with other artists I admire. I’ve also bought a few pieces by local artists, but haven’t made any big investments yet.” Caroline feels it is important for art to be affordable, “almost as important as it is to make a living off of my art. I think artmuse.com is a great venue for that.” Alternately, she says, “it’s incredibly validating when someone is willing to invest in my work in a serious way, and it allows me to keep doing it!”
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written by Jennifer Shaver
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