Caitlin Karolczak was born 1984 in northern Minnesota. She recieved a BFA in Fine Arts and BA in Art History at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in May of 2005. She currently resides in Minneapolis Minnesota working as a self employed artist and co-gallery owner. Her art studio and gallery are in the historic Grain Belt Brewery complex in NE Minneapolis. Besides painting, her interests include vintage medical and post-mortem photography, mid-century modern furnishings and art, fine design, fashion, snowboarding, digital photography, and travel.

I explore a number of themes in my work, mainly the fragility of the human body and mind; disease and injury. My source imagery often comes from vintage photos I collect, early medical and memorial imagery. I am attracted to the way early photographers blur the line between artistic portraiture and medical illustration. Modern medical images tend to simply show a condition, devoid of the individual. Contrarily, vintage medical photographs portray debilitating physical conditions in a notably artistic way. Often times they are not anonymous, resembling artfully done portraits. If they do attempt anonymity, it has an entirely different effect, giving a leper the appearance of a classically draped nude or giving the subject a fetish-like appearance by awkwardly covering the individual’s features with bands of fabric. My attraction to these images reflects a desire for my work to mirror these sentiments of beauty and distress, but at the same time take them a step further in a way that photography cannot.
I embrace accidental results in my work, as well as the spontaneity and lack of control of some mediums. My experimentation is not always obvious, but I think numerous layers and textures add distinction to a finished painting. I like the effect of these traditionally “abstract” methods of painting alongside classically “accomplished” techniques and I want my work to be a successful blending of the two.

I often use vintage and recycled materials. I collect everything from textiles and paper to antique vials of powdered pigments and oils. I also use antique paper from books that are in disrepair, some as early as the 17th Century. The handmade quality of these items, discoloration from age and well worn textures are welcome deviations from the standard artistic materials. The history and past life aura of these materials offer additional inspiration to my artistic process.