Carol Cauldwell has developed a solid reputation and a large global following for her whimsical sculptures that appeal to the nostalgic yearning in all of us for a more innocent world in which dreams come true.
Deeply passionate about bronze as a medium, Carol loves the permanence and durability of the material, and so she exclusively sculpts her artworks in bronze.
Carol´s works grace numerous important private collections around the world.
Carol Cauldwell
Available Small Works
"I want to make something with a ‘feel good’ feeling about it. People need to laugh and smile a bit more.
I try to make works that will tug on some form of nostalgia in a person. Nothing gives me more joy than a comment from somebody that my sculptures make them remember parts of their childhood."
Available Large Works
‘Creating artworks is a healing process for me. Allowing me to try to deal with the myriad of injustices that we come face to face with each day. As a person I struggle with injustice in any form and my artwork has become a therapeutic tool for me to work through these issues.
My sculptures take a critical view of social, political, and cultural issues engaging with them in an almost sarcastic, satirical, and humorous way. I use fairy tales, fantasy, wordplay, nursery rhymes, illustration and icons to deconstruct and comment on issues of injustice in its different forms.
Whilst I have and continue to work across different mediums, I am passionate about bronze, and love the permanence and durability of it. I am keenly aware of the durability of time and enjoy the idea that my artworks and their message will remain well into the future for the benefit of others’
Biography
Carol Cauldwell (b.1968, Johannesburg, South Africa) has steadily developed a global reputation as a highly sought-after sculptor, with her works featuring in numerous important public and private collections across the world.
Her whimsical sculptures take a critical view of social, political and cultural issues conveyed in a sarcastic and humorous way.
Inspired by her father’s love for art, Carol joined the Johannesburg school of Art, Ballet, Drama and Music, first specialising in music and later specialising in art. She went on to complete a Diploma in Ceramics, where she excelled in sculpture. This led to her establishing a Pottery Studio that soon expanded into a factory which was hand-painting over 4,000 ceramic items per day for various stores. The tremendous discipline required to manage such a factory gave Carol the skills required to become an excellent artist, with exceptional focus and work ethic.
In 2011, Carol took the decision to fulfil a lifelong dream to sculpt in wax and bronze casting, and this has remained her core focus ever since.
Carol enjoys pushing the boundaries of her own limits, which has led to her recent decision to open her own bronze foundry.
Her work could be described as "magic realism" and appeals to the nostalgic yearning in all of us for a more innocent world in which dreams come true
Signature Works by Carol Cauldwell
Q&A with Carol
Why did you become a sculptor?
It’s probably the one thing I always knew I would do. I was always fascinated by foundries and bronze sculptures. I excelled in anything 3D from an early age.
From the age of about 25, I remember being kept awake many a night imagining sculptures I wanted to make in my head. Once I started I would lie awake for hours on end.
In my twenties, I remember saying that I would make my name in the business world, and then when I turned 40 I would start sculpting. The first bit didn’t really go to plan, but I started my journey towards bronze sculpting at 40.
I studied ceramics after school where I excelled in sculpture but chose the production route and slowly built my factory up to hand painting up to 4000 units per day for one of our chain stores. It was the 1990s when coloured plates were in vogue. It was a fun time. Sadly, I lost that factory in 2000. It was at the time that a lot of the bigger potteries around the world were shut down because of the rise of Chinese imports. We just couldn’t compete.
It was really difficult to lose and I swore I would never touch clay again, At the time I would tell people I was cured of that horrible disease and didn’t touch clay for about 12 years.
I was creatively exhausted at that time and had no idea what I liked or disliked. I had been fulling the market needs for too long. I took on painting Greek Orthodox icons in the Byzantine style. I painted a few churches here at that time. There is no room for individuality there. It is such a strict discipline. I loved the journey and I was able to quietly heal a lot of wounds.
Then I bought myself a woodturning course for my 40th birthday. I enjoyed turning immensely but I conquered the discipline a little too quickly and soon found it all a little bit too round and brown for me. I yearned for the flexibility that I found in clay. It’s also a very slow process, there is little demand and you simply can’t sell an item for what it is worth in the hours spent making it.
Then on a random day, I had a bit of time to kill and popped in to see the top gallery in Johannesburg, just to see what they had on display. I remember walking into the room. It was blacked out and they had about 30 individual spotlights from the roof each pointing down at a sculpture. It was spectacular.
I remember gasping so loud in sheer shock at the beauty of the exhibition. I was mesmerised. I went straight downstairs and asked somebody for the name of a foundry to use and went straight and bought some clay and started my journey. When I opened that first bag of clay I burst into tears. I had missed it so much. I haven’t looked back.
I was struggling to decide what to make as my first sculpture. I visited a few foundries then to discuss what I needed to do. I remember saying to someone at a foundry that I didn’t know what to make. He replied: ‘Stop thinking so much! Just start and do something. The rest will follow’ It was such good advice. I decided to remake the last sculpture I had made at college and the rest just poured out.
What mediums do you work in, and why?
Everything gets bronzed. I find it an incredible medium. It’s permanent. So permanent that the archaeologists will find it. I don’t have a single ceramic sculpture left. They have all slowly broken over the years.
I love that it goes to a foundry and comes out a little differently than I had planned most times. Very much like putting a pot in a kiln to be glazed. The surprise element is what gets you hooked.
I mostly make the originals in a water-based sculpture clay. I like that it is so forgiving. You can take away and add at lib. I am really bad at planning what I make. My armatures are always wrong, and I am forever changing them.
Most of my sculptures land up on the floor only to be started from scratch a few times before I am happy with them. As much as I hate it, I have learned to accept that is how it will probably always be.
A good friend of mine will always comment that it will be a good sculpture once it’s fallen a few times. I learn a lot each time and normally get it back to where it was within a few hours.
I make my own moulds and sometimes my own waxes too and send them to be cast at the foundry.
To what extent have your life experiences influenced your work?
I think everyone’s art is 100% influenced by their experiences. When I first started sculpting I was in an incredibly hard marriage. My sculptures at that time had really dark humour attached to them. Sculpture was my refuge.
Normally someone or something would make me angry and I’d translate it into a sculpture. There can’t be much better therapy than that!
Then life got a bit easier and I met the art dealer I have at the moment. He changed the way I look at sculpture. They don’t have quirky titles anymore and are sculptures in their own right. ‘A sculpture for the sake of a sculpture.’
What theme/s do you pursue in your work, if any, and why?
Life has become incredibly hard for a lot of people. I think I have knee-jerked this reality by trying to make something with a ‘feel-good’ feeling about it. People need to laugh and smile a bit more.
I try to make works that will tug on some form of nostalgia in a person. Nothing gives me more joy than a comment from somebody that my sculptures make them remember parts of their childhood.
It’s a really good feeling for me to quietly stand back and watch people take photos with my work. It happens a lot in the galleries.
What do you see as the strengths of your pieces, visually or conceptually?
Scale is very important to me. I spend a lot of time deciding how small or big a piece needs to be. I’d like to think they are strong compositionally with good lines both positive and negative.
I turn my pieces constantly while I sculpt. They need to work in the round. That’s why they are so hard to photograph.
I get comments so often that they are so much nicer in reality than in a photo. I’d like to believe that is true.
What are you trying to communicate with your art?
That there is so much goodness in the world. If we look it’s there.
Source: https://pan-african.net/interview-with-south-african-artist-carol-cauldwell/