Feathers, Fins, And Fur: An Art Menagerie

Caroline became enchanted with clay when she spent summers as a teen at Penland School of Crafts in the mountains of North Carolina. She received a BFA in Ceramics at the University of North Carolina and has worked with clay for over 40 years. Currently, her figurative sculptures are evocations of a dream world inspired by mythology, fairy tales, and the antics of animals and children. She is based in Boulder.

Carol began experimenting with textiles at an early age. Though her university training was in painting and drawing, she found herself gradually drawn back to fiber, eventually discovering the basketry technique of coiling. Originally focused on vessel forms, she has adapted the process to create complex pictorial compositions. The universal nature of animal symbolism and myth appeal to Carol and are often part of her artwork. However, recently ancient myths have given way to influences from 17th century paintings of dead game, 18th century cabinets of curiosity and 19th century natural history museums—humans’ early reverence for nature replaced by an assumption of dominion over the earth. She lives in Tempe, Arizona.

Johanna was born and raised in Denver and now lives in Greeley, where she co-owns and operates Wonderhand Studios—a communal printmaking studio. She earned a BFA in printmaking from Metropolitan State University of Denver and an MFA in printmaking from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Enhanced by printmaking’s history of narrative, her work explores the shared histories of humans, as told by animals. Through ambiguity, she feels animals can tell universal stories that weave anthropology, art history and spirituality—our shared humanness—better than their human counterparts.