Born and raised on the east coast, Caulton has lived all over the United States. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, South Carolina, Nevada, Oregon and Washington were all past homes before she settled in New Mexico. “New Mexico is a place I kept coming back to, both in actual visits and in my mind,” she says. “I think it is one of those places one either loves or hates. For those of us who love it here, it becomes part of your being… I don’t even want to travel anymore to far flung places. I just want to be here.”
Caulton’s most recent project is a series of beautiful mandala-inspired images that depict the life cycles of different plants and animals and how they interact with one another. There is a narrative to each work, a continual story for the viewer to interpret. “I am inspired by nature, but don’t try to reproduce what I see,” Caulton says. “Rather, I try to paint an ‘idea,’ using elements from nature and her rhythms.”
By studying the creatures for her paintings, Caulton learns more about the world around her. A painting called Natural Order depicts a black widow spider in the center, surrounded by a circle of blue wasps, who in turn are surrounded by four birds. “In trying to respect the creature (black widow spider) and protect from her at the same time, I discovered a pattern of detoxification in the natural order,” Caulton says regarding this image. “I discovered the blue dirt dauber wasp hunts the widow specifically, puts the dead spider into the mud nest to feed the growing young. Then the birds in the piece, the stellar jay and downy woodpecker, really like to eat that wasp.”
Caulton has always done artistic things to express herself. Her art is much more than just creating beautiful images, there is a spiritual side to it as well. “My life and art are inseparable. The pieces I create come from a deep place in my being,” Caulton says. “I never get art blocks. I only wish I could find enough time and move fast enough to keep up with all my ideas.”
Caulton’s work is on display at the Taos Art Plaza, as well as in the High Road Marketplace in Truchas and DC Arts Studio (her personal studio) in Chamisal. She is a regular artist in the High Road Studio Tour, which takes place this year on Sept 19 - 20 and 26- 27, 2009. DC Arts Studio will be open both weekends and by appointment the whole week in between.
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