Rock and Refuge: Mixed Media
Artist Statement
In my art, I’m looking for answers while evolving, discovering, and telling a story. I am inspired by the residential architecture nearby the natural boulders along the Joshua Tree National Park border in California. This area is a kind of artist’s refuge. It is a place of freedom as well as meditation. I have referred to it as a kind of deadwood town where unique exteriors are built seemingly without codes or restrictions while enormous, precarious rock formations seem to balance in midair. Most of my compositions begin as crude existential or ambiguous ideas. I thoroughly enjoy the handmade and it’s the media itself that drives me forward. My process is like a personal redemption—a methodical visionary activity I use to distract myself from a damaged past to create anew.
Native Los Angeles artist Carol Es is primarily known for creating personal narratives in a wide spectrum of media. Her work resides in collections, including the Getty Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, as well as a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, and a Wynn Newhouse Award, she’s also a professional musician, writer for HuffPost, and she has been published with small presses. She’s earned writing grants from the National Arts and Disability Center, California Arts Council, and the WORD Grant: Bruce Geller Memorial Prize from the American Jewish University.
