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Visit to Jemez NM, site of Memorial Day workshop.
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Donna J Caulton
On the High Road in Chamisal, New Mexico
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Horsetailtrails Article About My Art - Saturday, 12 September 2009
Donna J. Caulton has been an artist in many forms throughout her life, but painting is her passion. In the past she studied pottery and theatre, and she often does printmaking in addition to her watercolors and acrylics. She feels that it is difficult to choose a single medium as her favorite, but two-dimensional artwork is where she feels she belongs.
While her canvases may be flat, her colors and imagery certainly are not. Brilliant blues and earth tones combine to create her stunning images. “In the beginning and always my inspiration has been nature’s bounty, cycles, the laws of natural order,” Caulton says, “How all creatures on the planet are inter-related, dependent on one another in some way and on the abundant resources of our world. I am fascinated with the indigenous peoples, how they always knew of these relationships and kept the planetary forces ‘alive’ with their rituals and blessings, something we seem to have forgotten in modern days. I like my work to be reminders of these things.”
While her canvases may be flat, her colors and imagery certainly are not. Brilliant blues and earth tones combine to create her stunning images. “In the beginning and always my inspiration has been nature’s bounty, cycles, the laws of natural order,” Caulton says, “How all creatures on the planet are inter-related, dependent on one another in some way and on the abundant resources of our world. I am fascinated with the indigenous peoples, how they always knew of these relationships and kept the planetary forces ‘alive’ with their rituals and blessings, something we seem to have forgotten in modern days. I like my work to be reminders of these things.”
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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