Caitlin Cartwright’s “One and Only” is on display in the “Wisdom on the Marigolds” exhibition at Brandt-Roberts Galleries. Credit: Caitlin Cartwright
Similar in their surrealism, storytelling and use of vibrant color, artist Caitlin Cartwright and contemporary mixed-media artist LaShae Boyd paired at Brandt-Roberts Galleries, located at 642 N. High St. in the Short North, for the gallery’s current exhibition “Wisdom in the Marigolds.”
Cartwright and Boyd are acrylic painters who incorporate collage into their artwork differently. Both said life experiences and interactions with others were their inspiration despite their different artistic messages.
With a background in community work and volunteering with the Peace Corps, Cartwright developed her artistic perspective from experiences traveling the world. Cartwright said she strives to constantly add to her “visual vocabulary,” things she sees in everyday life that resonate with her.
“I always say I’m really inspired by what I see around me,” Cartwright said. “Combining the two is what I love — using the idea of knowing that art can be a tool for peace-building and healing and economic empowerment, storytelling.”
In her paintings, which she described as stylistic, Cartwright said she pastes materials, such as wrapping paper or images from magazines, onto her paintings to form leaves, birds or eyes.
“All the eyes in my paintings are collaged on, and I get those from different fashion magazines mostly,” Cartwright said. “That’s something that I want to be very visceral — when a human sees another human’s eyes, kind of having that connection. So, that, for me, furthers what I’m hoping to accomplish in my message.”
When she creates, Cartwright said she starts from a visual memory or emotion and builds a story from there. She said she first began this process while living in Namibia when she was introduced to a local boy whose job was to bathe zedonks — animals that are half zebra, half donkey.
Inspired by the zedonk and the boy’s connection with the animal, Cartwright said she began to create bright, bold narrative work that has an element of surrealism, or magical realism, only partially rooted in reality. This is the kind of work visitors will see from Cartwright in “Wisdom in the Marigolds.”
“I loved seeing that kind of bond he had with the animals and the really beautiful and — I think — pure way that humans can connect with an animal and feel supported,” Cartwright said. “This specific body of work, it came from the idea of just really wanting to express feeling an exhale and feeling supported and at peace.”
Aside from the zedonk and paper collage elements, another theme seen in Cartwright’s work is her use of color. Cartwright said when she paints people, she works with flat silhouettes drawn in one vibrant color, as opposed to using flesh colors, with the collaged eyes being the only feature visible on the face.
“Figures have faces that are covered with a flat cover over their face,” Cartwright said. “I’m hoping that when somebody sees that, they can see something specific and ambiguous at the same time.”
Similarly, Boyd said she manipulates her work through color by painting people of color with a monochromatic magenta color scheme. She first photographs her subjects and then digitally sketches over the photos — adding layers and playing with composition and color before painting the image onto a canvas and incorporating collages of the original photographs, Boyd said.
Seeing self-transformation through spirituality and discovering what it means to be her true self, Boyd said her personal relationship with love and her tendency to overextend her love to others relate to her artistic messages in “Wisdom in the Marigolds.”
“I really wanted to paint about just mental health and things about the self and healing,” Boyd said. “My whole overall work is about starting with self, to understand what it means to show up in the world.”
Boyd said her intention in “Wisdom in the Marigolds” was to encourage viewers to question themselves when they experience desire, to ask themselves why they are being drawn to something.
“I’m really big on people finding themselves in my pieces,” Boyd said. “I don’t usually like to tell people what they should be looking at, rather I want them to interpret it on their own, and a lot of the time they pick up on these narratives that are very deep.”
Overall, “Wisdom in the Marigolds” is an energetic experience, Cartwright said. Boyd and Cartwright’s work complement each other in their combination of color and narration, Cartwright said.
“I think, essentially, we’re both telling stories, and I love the idea of people coming in and just seeing themselves,” Cartwright said.
With both artists incorporating pinks, blues and greens, Boyd agreed that her and Cartwright’s paintings merged nicely.
“Her color palette is very vibrant and very pleasing to the eye, which I would say also is kind of what I do with my color palette,” Boyd said. “She’s also a very deep person where she’s talking about a lot of deep subject matters in her work as well.”
“Wisdom in the Marigolds” will be on display through April 30. Visitors can see the exhibition during the gallery’s open hours Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. or by scheduling a private appointment by emailing Brandt Roberts Galleries at [email protected].
