Carol Cauldwell‘s work has become very quirky with sometimes vicious comments on society portrayed in images that are deceptively pleasing to the eye. Her artworks take a critical view of social, political and cultural issues conveyed in an almost sarcastic and satirical and humorous way. As a person she struggles with injustice in any form and her artwork has become a therapeutic tool for her to work through these issues. In her work she deconstructs that which bothers her and then makes a critical comment, using fairytales, idioms, nursery rhymes, illustration and icons, in the hope that she will be able to create some sort of resonance be it positive or negative in whoever engages in the work. She tries to use familiar visual images which she arranges into conceptually layered pieces.
She has worked in ceramics and wood, but prefers to work in bronze. She likes the permanence and durability of it. She is keenly aware of its durability in time, and tries to use universal subject matter rather than a topical one which will date quickly. She does not have a specific style that she uses but rather uses a style that is suitable to the subject matter at hand. Her sculptures are all completely different, but put together as a body of work, they definitely complement each other.
Carol Cauldwell was born in Germiston in South Africa in 1968 and grew up in the beautiful surroundings of Magaliesburg. Inspired by her father’s love of everything creative, she joined Johannesburg school of Art, Ballet, Drama and Music first specialising in music and then changing over to art, where she successfully completed her Matric. Carol acquired a diploma in ceramics from WITS Technicon where she excelled in Sculpture. Upon completing her diploma, she began a Pottery Studio in Magaliesburg and due to its growing success, this soon became a thriving factory in Modderfontien supplying local chain stores, which was eventually hand painting up to 4000 units per day.
She closed the business in 2000 and as a healing process started painting Greek Orthodox Icons, painting numerous icons and two Orthodox Churches fully clad with stylized patterns and iconography, yet throughout this time she yearned to get back to 3D work. For her 40th birthday she attended a Wood Turning course and enjoyed turning a few pieces, but found wood very static and sterile hankering for the fluidity of clay. 2011 finally brought the fulfilment of a lifelong dream as she started sculpting in wax and bronze casting and has found enormous joy in this creative process.