Caruso: Drawing from Nature and Myth

Although I was born in the United States, as were my parents, my paternal grandparents emigrated from a town near Messina, Sicily, while my mother’s parents came from Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands off the coast of the island. My connection to my Italian heritage came early on as my paternal grandmother did not speak English. She lived upstairs and took care of me while both of my parents were at work. She spoke to me in Sicilian, so from a very early age I learned to understand and communicate with her. I developed a curiosity about where she came from as I also wrote letters for her to her brother in, as we called it, “the old country“ and wondered about him and the place where they both grew up. Years later, I would take many trips to Italy and Sicily to learn more about the country and its culture and to study Italian formally in Perugia and Florence.

I am an interdisciplinary artist and work in several media: painting, found object sculpture, clay, and printmaking. I draw inspiration from contemporary issues and from the natural and ancient worlds.

My early visits to many of Italy’s important archaeological sites and museums, such as Pompeii, Agrigento, and the great Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, helped to develop my fascination with archaeology, an important thread of my work. This interest in the ancient world is reflected in some of my paintings and in my sculpture that evoke myths and encourage viewers to uncover and to discover.

Another link between my work and my cultural background has come recently, as I have just completed an artist residency in the mountain village of Tusa, Sicily. For my residency project, I decided to focus on the topic of Resiliency in the Volcanic Landscape, particularly related to the Island of Salina, the birthplace of my maternal grandparents. I became interested in different forms of resiliency: the resiliency of plant life in the dry, rugged landscape of Salina; the economic resiliency of island life; and the human resiliency that is necessary when living on an isolated island. I began by collecting samples of plants that have adapted to the volcanic landscape of Salina (such as capers, herbs, and grape vines) and made some monoprints using these plants and also experimented with some carborundum collagraphs depicting some of the volcanic land forms.

My artist residency in Sicily has renewed my interest in Sicilian language and culture. I have only just scratched the surface of the topic of resilience and hope to continue to explore this issue to gain a deeper understanding of my cultural background as well as to develop ideas for artistic works that might emerge from my study.