Drawing Conclusions: Carol Caputo
Kate Hickey
In 1984, over 20 years ago, Caputo launched her career with her first exhibition entitled "Paper, Stone and Scissors" in Westport, CT. Caputo’s technical training began in the School of Visual Arts in New York, where she received a full scholarship. Following this, she studied drawing and painting at the Brooklyn Museum of New York, painting at the Art Students League, NY, and lithography at the Silvermine, CT. Since then she has enjoyed a colorful career in graphic design and advertising while exhibiting her artwork in numerous galleries such as the Art Directors Club, the Society of Illustrators, Lever House, and the Broadway Gallery, all of which are in New York, as well as the Stamford Center for the Arts Gallery, Artspace in New Haven, and the Richardson Vicks Gallery Stamford, CT.
Her exhibitions–in the last couple of years, at least–seem to focus on kinetic energy, the idea of constant movement, and capturing this vigor on canvas and paper. The primary inspiration is the cityscape of New York, which she uses as her chief source of material, usually rubbings, shapes and scenes. She has said, "I roam the cityscape picking up speed and energy from the crowds of people rushing around me."
In the series titled "The Rhythm In Me," Caputo attempted to capture the movement and sensation of Latin music and dance on canvas. Explaining this series, she writes: "Just as Kandinsky and Miro strove to create visual interpretations of jazz and classical music with line, shape and color, my focus was to visualize the essence of Latin music in texture and color."
Texture is at the core of her work. Caputo spends a lot of her time on location taking rubbings or carting her tools to her subject location to achieve that all-important first impression. Her recent collection, "Drawing Conclusions"–which was exhibited at the 500X Gallery in Dallas, Texas, for the month of October, 2005–further emphasizes her connection with the streets of New York and the wealth of textures, props and shapes which inspire her. The work displayed is metallic at times, smooth and natural at others. Colors pop where she allows them to, lines and angles pile and spin within the whirlpool composition she creates. Mutated photographs become subconscious markers of reality, a final thought before departing onto a new excursion. Many of the works feel like a freeze-frame of an explosion, three-dimensional in its movement.
In a previous feature for this magazine, Caputo said that she is heavily influenced by Kandinsky, and if there were one artist who she could collaborate with, it would be him. Her current works emulate her heroes’ composition and shape in a worthy homage to the maestro. The lines of these works are often crisp, such as those borrowed from plastic containers and old furniture. Her shapes meld with rubbed textures from building facades and other urban props, all of which she later alters electronically.
Caputo says, "I am a visual scavenger. When I see the shape or texture, I want to capture it. The drawings, tracings and rubbings I make in my sketchbook become references when I paint. Over the years, I’ve found the original impressions to be richer."
The artist creates work that is visually exciting and fresh. Utilizing her skills in channeling from the urban environment, and her masterful touch in electronic alteration–tweaking an image without ever bleeding it of its life–allows for work that is never dry or wooden. Each holds a blast of vitality that is passed along to the viewer.
About this new collection, Caputo states: "There is no truth, order or accountability, just my personal journey and a metronome that imposes its rhythm into my work. The force runs together, expanding and compressing like breathing in the moment."
