karen caldicott art and sculpture
posted by the scholar on December 12th, 2007filed under: art, clay, photography
do you ever wonder what it would be like if you chucked it all, left the city and moved out to the sticks? would you miss the option of thai food at 2 am? would your lungs expand from all the fresh air, and your mind expand out to the corners, in a more creative way? uk artist karen caldicott, a longtime brooklyn resident, currently makes her home in the beautiful hudson valley – and look at the amazing things she does! (okay, okay, she didn’t do it all out in the country.) you may know karen from her recent weekly contributions to new york magazine, where she created the disarmingly detailed plasticine models of important people and celebrities. these models were borne of an idea she had to bring her two dimensional illustrations to the next level. she would sketch, and create a clay model from it, then photograph the model and present both the two and three dimensional pieces together on display – quite an arduous process, and thorough and fluid too.
karen has explored her talents in a variety of media, with a seemingly effortless élan. she was drawn to the mix of urban and nature that gently used snow fuses into sculpture, and her strangely beautiful snow series of photographs was created.
her illustrations and artwork have piqued the interest of many clients, including the wall street journal, random house, the national law journal and time.
karen is now beginning to dabble in stop motion video and animation, a place where the progression of her clay pieces would naturally go (doesn’t it make sense?). this is a clip of johnny knoxville doing some moves (and i am really feeling a peter gabriel big time/sledgehammer-type vibe from this):
i am looking forward to seeing her refine and command this new medium, as she has consistently demonstrated with all the others she has used. there is also a certain smoothness in all these works that somehow makes their meaning clear, however simple or complex it may be.
karen’s marvelous clay heads will be on display in a show at the cooper union sometime next year. stay tuned for the details, and in the meantime check her website to see many more models, illustrations and photography!
thank you karen for all the info!
December 13th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Nice art works Karen..very creative and unique. I’m excited to try one at home.
December 13th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
which are you going to try myspace?
December 13th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Great work by Karen. Like it very much.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
hi peter,
i think karen’s work is great too!
thanks for stopping by!
December 13th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
So what’s the deal with Mick Jagger and the Banana?
December 13th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
hi bob,
well, in her weekly commission for new york magazine karen created busts of famous people and photographed them “around town” enjoying city life. perhaps that week was the start of national banana awareness month? this is a good question…
thanks for the visit!
December 13th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
so cool! thanks for the review and links!
December 14th, 2007 at 12:02 am
hi sosser,
glad to hear you think they’re cool too. don’t you love paul giamatti?
nice 2 c u!
December 14th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Very interesting and intriguing work.
I especially like the stop motion video and animation.
Thanks for sharing this!
December 14th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
hi suana,
i too am quite intrigued by the stop motion video. i am excited to see what direction karen will go next with her talents.
by the way, i am so happy that you are selling some of your illustrations – i have got to get to your shop and look at everything you are offering – it is all so beautiful!
thanks for stopping by!