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Caitlin Hackett
- Female
- Brooklyn, NY
- United States
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Caitlin Hackett posted a photo
Enchanted Forest show
the first piece for the Enchanted Forest show at Strychnin gallery in Berlin. 18 by 24, ballpoint pen, watercolor, colored pencil and gold acrylic.
Profile Information
- About Me:
- I am an artist, illustrator and creature concept designer based out of Brooklyn, NY. I grew up in northern California, in a tiny town in an area called the "lost coast", due to it's remoteness. I grew up hiking and backpacking in the Pacific Northwest, living amongst the ancient redwoods and the many creatures therein. From an early age I came to respect the natural world, and to be intrigued by it's creatures, rituals, mythology, and sciences, thanks especially to my father who taught me much about the natural world. I always wanted to be an animal as a young child, mostly I longed to grow up to be a cat, a dream which of course, did not come true ; ). This unusual childhood longing did however shape my later work, where often human and animal figures combine to form new creatures. I have now been living in New York City for roughly five years, and although I miss the wilderness of my youth, the urban landscape of New York has become a fitting home.
- About My Art:
- In my work I am exploring the relationship between humans and animals; the idea of the human denial of our animal nature and of humans as the dominant species, as well as the mutation of the animal created by the human interpretation of the animal. My work alludes to the boundaries that separate humanity from animals both physically and metaphysically, as well as the objectification of and personification of animals. I invent creatures, anthropomorphic, mutated, or pseudo mythical in imagery, using my imaginary world and bringing it into the physical world in an attempt to create a language that speaks about the human animal relationship and the natural and unnatural elements of it. I am faced with the fact that we live in a planet in decline, where almost every natural ecosystem in the world is slipping away. Human kind has created a planet of refugees; animals forced to flee ever farther from the insatiable encroachment of urban development, victims of a war for space which they cannot hope to win. My drawings refer to this decline and to the refugees it has created. I am left with the question of what is natural; are we (human beings) still a part of nature? If so, does that make all that we have created, cities, vehicles, factories, all technology, part of nature as well? As we move into an increasingly plastic, electronic, and robotic culture how can we define our own fundamental nature as the nature of the world around us changes and our metaphysical identity evolves into something beyond the human as an animal? As we separate from our animal nature, will we be able to still see and understand the importance of other animals and our relationship to them? As we are able to remove ourselves from our own physical bodies and to come to experience life through the metaphysical, the digital, and the psychic, how will this distance from our own bodies and the physical experience of the world affect our relationship with nature and the way we see creatures who exist completely within their physical bodies and are defined by their physical needs?
As my work evolves I am beginning to think more and more about the way in which people bestow identity and how, deprived of identity, animals are reduced to a kind of living taxidermy, a costume of themselves, subject to human apathy and mutated by human ideals of beauty or monstrosity. I am interested in this idea of nature as a costume made up of layers of mythology, prejudice, and personification. I am telling a story about disappearance and the rapid and extravagant destruction of the human-animal, and how this loss of our animal nature is affecting the way human kind views the animal world.
I am describing these questions through the use of paper and ink in the form of life sized anthropomorphic, pseudo mythical beasts. Done entirely in ballpoint pen, ink, graphite, watercolor and colored pencil, these massive creatures are a balance between the power and physical presence of the life sized and the intensity of the dense, delicate, and time consuming detail of the ballpoint pen and ink. Because of their great size and vivid detail these animals are released into our world and become characters that must be addressed in terms of our physical space, and thus granted an identity.
- Studied? Exhibitions?
- BFA Pratt Institute
- Favorite Artists:
- Walton Ford, Martin Wittfooth, Hannah Dougherty, Christopher Rieger, Brian Froud, James Jean, Audubon
- Website:
- http://caitlinhackett.carbonmade.com
Comment Wall (7 comments)
- At 2:01am on April 25, 2012,
W.T. Richards said… Good work.
- At 6:52pm on December 29, 2010,
David Smith said… - I greatly enjoy drawing in ballpoint pen,too!Your drawings are brilliant!
- At 6:49pm on December 29, 2010, David Smith said…
- I love your pictures,Caitlin;there's something wonderfully eery about them!
- At 7:12pm on November 19, 2010,
Kevin A Moore said…
- beautiful line work!! And a fantastic imagination!!
- At 9:12pm on August 23, 2010,
Jordan E. Brooks said… - great stuff!!
- At 9:03am on August 1, 2010,
Jeanette Luchese said… - Congratulations on being featured.
- At 6:43am on June 28, 2010,
Philip Letts said…
- Cailtin, welcome to b-uncut - the network for artists by artists. We look forward to seeing you load and rate artworks, post blogs, join Forum discussions and more. Find other artists in the various Groups and read the 'Notes' for tips on using the site.
Dive in and enjoy.
And don't let anything stop you expressing your art.
SEND MY PITCH
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