Guest Artist: Caroline Williams, City & Guilds of London Art School
My name is Caroline Williams and I am currently studying at Foundation level at City and Guilds of London Art School. Now that my children are old enough, I can be fully engaged in my practice and have immersed myself into an educational environment to discover the artist I can and want to be. My work is eclectic, based on personal connection with the people around me, friends and family as well as my own life experiences.
Caroline Williams, Fantasy.
"Fantasy" was made as a personal project, following a long series of works made in plaster for Part Two of the Foundation Diploma. After spending two months working with a white medium, I was craving colours and a sense of letting go. I've long been a fan of Japanese animation, especially Hayao Miyazaki and his amazing ability to create fantastic and unseen characters within his films. For this piece, I took my inspiration from the Forest Spirit in Princess Mononoke, using wire, paper and ink to create antlers. I cast a plaster head from a mold that I made during the previous project, and I decorated its surface with coloured ink and acrylic pens.
Caroline Williams, Figure in Context.
"Figure in Context” was the second project of Part Two of the course. I found my model very close to home - one of my sons. At first the sculpture was more surreal, with a second child coming out of the back of the first one (playing on the fact that I have twin sons) but while making the sculpture, which I created using paper, a wire armature, hot glue and cast-off clothing, I realised that it would be more powerful as a single child. I enjoyed watching people interact with him. First, they were startled by the fact of there being an unaccompanied child hanging out at art school, then they were creeped out by the immobility of the figure. Some students talked to the sculpture, some walked straight past, only then realising that “he” was fake. Their reaction was often to laugh about having been fooled into believing he was alive.
