Caitlin McCormack's Creepy Crochets

I've been following Caitlin McCormack on Twitter for quite some time now, but I realized that I haven't posted about her awesome work here on my blog. Caitlyn is a Philadelphia-based artist known for her intricate skeleton sculptures of different animals pinned to black backgrounds or encased in glass specimen jars. They're not real skeletons, of course. The 27-year-old University of the Arts graduate crochets them from glue soaked string.

Her grandfather was a skilled bird-carver and her grandmother a talented crocheter. She started making the sculptures as a way to cope the loss of her grandparents, who died within months of each other.

"The act of stiffening intricately crocheted cotton string with glue produces material that is structurally similar to delicate bone tissue,"she says. "The string implemented in this process can be viewed as the basic cellular unit of fabrication, and by utilizing media and practices inherited from my deceased relatives, I aim to generate emblems of my diminishing bloodline, embodied by each organism's skeletal remains."

Caitlin's Mnemosyne is currently on view at Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Philadelphia. The exhibit opened on October 23 and runs through December 12, 2015, so you've got plenty of time to check it out if you happen to be in (or near) the City of Brotherly Love.

Comments

Midday Muse

Yesterday, just across the street from a coffee shop near the town square, someone caught my attention. A girl, no more than sixteen, though perhaps younger, appeared on the sidewalk with her dog. She wore a beautiful sundress, the kind that sways gently in the late afternoon breeze. She was striking — mixed race, maybe a European father and a Filipina mother — and there was something about her aura, the way she moved, that reminded me of a ballerina from a Degas painting. For a moment, I couldn’t quite place what it was that drew my gaze. I’m forty-six, married, a father of two. It’s been years since the sight of a stranger has stopped me mid-step. But there she was, and I felt a quick, disorienting pull — not love, not even lust in the conventional sense, but something more confusing. She walked into a nearby pizzeria, her dog trotting obediently beside her. I followed — not out of any conscious decision, but more out of curiosity, the kind that makes us read the ending of a story ev...

The Endurance Artist

I recently stumbled upon the work of Margritt Martinet , whose drawings are giving my brain a delightful yet exhausting workout. This French artist, you see, deals in the glorious, mind-bending borderland between the organic and the futuristic. She doesn't just create art; she crafts entire visual universes that are so immersive and dynamic you feel like you should be wearing a spacesuit just to look at them. My mind simply cannot wrap itself around the sheer volume of focused physical labor that goes into these things. The pieces are intricate, layered, and incredibly consistent. But what truly inspires—and simultaneously mocks—me is her patience. This, my friends, is the real superpower. I once attempted a similar large-scale, intricate project. It started so well: my early lines were sharp, and my geometric shapes were perfect. Then, slowly but surely, as the hours stretched and the cramping started in my wrist, the inevitable descent began. The sharp lines became... a little mo...

ANTHOLOGY: Six Shows, One Big Creative Collision

Gravity Art Space just dropped ANTHOLOGY —and it's a total art overload (in the best way). We're talking six shows happening all at once, packed into every corner of the gallery. Teaming up with the UP Artists' Circle, they're digging into how art runs in families—the creative DNA that passes from mentors to students, friends to friends, and one generation to the next. It's all about that shared obsession with making things, no matter what. Opening night felt like a big family get-together. Artists, curators, and friends—both old and new faces—were catching up and low-key planning their next masterpieces. The rooms buzz with everything from loud, in-your-face pieces to quiet works that pull you in if you let them. If you're anywhere near Diliman, drop by. Go see the beautiful chaos. ANTHOLOGY runs until November 21, 2025.

finding cain

Search This Blog