Carol Newborg

Artist Statement / Bio

Sanctuary spaces and natural forms have always inspired me. My first installations were large-scale environments created with hand-made ceramic pyramids, logs and other forms. These works were a response to long stays near sanctuary ruins during a year of travel in Southern Europe.
My newest work is "Sentences", about the excessively long sentences served by many people in the American prison system. Each piece is for someone I know who is now free from prison. A metal grid represents the bars and cages of prison; and smaller teardrop-shaped wire forms are supported by the grid, with each form representing a year served by that person. All are wrapped in textiles and yarns and threads, signifying the work of healing and growth that each person went through. Wrapping and weaving loosely is a process I find healing.
Another new series is a mixed media wall-based installation. "Flying Souls" is a textile-based piece about my Jewish family history involving the concentration camps. The many children who were lost are represented by hand-knit versions of children's clothing, sewn between two layers of silk.

Many of my past installations were inspired by aspects of nature in their overall concept and through the use of hundreds of hand-made multiples, no two of which are identical. Installations of paper maché and beeswax 'drops' have focused on some of the different forms water takes, from rain to waterfall to mist. Another series of wall-based installations used hundreds of small paper maché pieces based on pods, cocoons and other forms found in nature. My work creates the possibility of focusing on natural elements in a meditative way; this idea was also fundamental to an earlier series of 'Sanctuary' installations.

I have also been involved in community-based art programs with incarcerated people in California prisons since the early 1980s. After many years, I realized that prison art studios are another form of sanctuaries. I work with California's Arts-in-Corrections, which was one of the world's largest institutional art programs. I continue to teach and organize exhibits with the San Quentin Prison Arts Project (www.williamjamesassocation.org). I believe that art should be accessible to all, and that it can help people to create change in their lives, thereby helping all of us.

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