Bio
Born and raised in New Bedford, MA, Carolyn Swiszcz followed an older brother to the midwest after high school. She earned a BFA in printmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1994. Carolyn is renowned for her uncanny, yet affectionate landscapes and building exteriors, employing a wide range of painting and printmaking techniques, vibrant colors, and distinctive patterns. Carolyn’s proclivity for experimentation and bliss-following has also led her to create songs, music videos, and animations. She currently publishes a mail-order zine, Zebra Cat Zebra.
Carolyn’s work has been exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery in New York, Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, and Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston. Her prints have been published by Highpoint Editions in Minneapolis. She is a recipient of the Jerome, McKnight, Bush, and Minnesota State Arts Board artist fellowships. She lives in West Saint Paul, MN with her husband (photographer Wilson Webb) and their daughter.
Artist Statement
The buildings, signs and trees in my work were chosen intuitively. I’m drawn to the textures and backstories (real and imagined) I find in the image-scape of my daily travels. These places tug at my heartstrings because they’re holding ground (for now) amidst a world that is changing around them. Noticing and rendering these images transforms the way I understand my surroundings, helping me look closely to find more to appreciate. Looking and making, one practice feeding the other.
The “how” of a work -- the layers that build the image -- holds as much interest for me as the subject matter. The suspense of seeing an experiment unfold is the carrot that keeps me moving forward. I especially love the “front-loading” character of printmaking, i.e. being fussy in creating a stencil, stamp or process and then stepping back to watch it play out with all its imperfections and surprises.
Many of my images have a plot twist about 3/4 of the way through creation -- hence the proliferation of seams. These “surgeries” are performed to dramatically change the composition or take a building from one setting to place it in another, creating new combinations that suddenly evoke a different mood or perspective. This allows me to arrive at a destination I could not have reached by a direct route.
Photo by Wilson Webb