Skip to main content

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

Popular posts from this blog

The Adorable Sculptures of Yen Yen Lo

These images are from a series of wall sculptures created by Yen Yen Lo . Here you can see her intricately textured ceramic pieces, looking downright adorable. Yen Yen Lo's eye for the unique and whimsical is delightful. Apparently they are not intended for kids under 16. Fifteen-year-olds cannot be trusted with fragile stuff. Get them a Funko Pop instead.

Eric van Straaten's 3D-Printed Statuettes

I can't remember when I first became entranced with Eric van Straaten 's 3D-printed sculptures. I think I stumbled onto his work through tumblr when I was searching for new artists to follow. Eric's attention to detail is pretty amazing, and the image of the eroticized child-woman is familiar throughout his work. Most of his hyper surreal pieces are 3D-printed in sandstone material, which are created by laying down a thin layer of gypsum powder and using a binding agent and color inks to print a pattern onto it. Once the entire model is printed, it is withdrawn from the print bed and the excess powder is removed. The model is then sealed and ready for display. "I think that the girls I create in my work are visualizations of my own feelings, fantasies and thoughts," the Dutch artist explains. "The girls actually look like someone I (used to) know and the different ‘portraits’ tell something about what I think of myself in regards to her or women ...

Eric Ogden and his 'Half-Remembered Season'

Michigan-born Eric Ogden produces images that look as if they were stills captured from films. What I really like about his work is his ability to execute striking photos with great use of light. Eric's portfolio includes portraits of A-list celebs, breathtaking landscapes, and other commercial stuff. His photos have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Time, and Rolling Stone, among others. My personal favorite is his photo series called A Half-Remembered Season , in which the subjects look like they were frozen in time. They're both intriguing and seductive. Whether it is a child on a swing in midair, a young waitress standing inside a soda shop, or a beautiful brunette floating in a swimming pool, someone is trying to tell a story. You can explore more of Eric's work on his website .