Carolyn Oberst OIl on wood and canvas
I started out pursuing a career in clothing design and formed my own design company in NYC that specialized in women’s dresses and separates. While working on designing fabrics I realized how much I enjoyed the painting process and decided to give up my business. I then studied for 2 years at the NY Art Students League and encouraged by my teachers there set up my own studio and began painting and drawing in earnest.
My impetus has been to take a traditional genre, like still life, and give it a new twist. Recently, after creating a series of still life paintings using vintage dolls and toys as images that were framed in interesting ways, I developed what I call, the “fractured” image.
Continuing to use the subject matter of vintage toys to invoke a simpler time, the fracturing and collaging of these images expresses the feeling that childhood, and adult life as well, isn’t what it used to be. We’re all more fractured, busier, bombarded with input than we ever were before, with some distressing consequences. The bright toy colors combined with the animated look to the work also gives the paintings a hopeful, happy feel, capturing the positive side of this new order.
Complication, juxtaposition, multi-tasking, etc. can also be fun and interesting. This helps to express my feeling that, while frequently difficult and challenging, the fracturing of our modern life is certainly not dull or boring. In this way I'm depicting both the positive and negative sides of these issues and giving expression to many feelings at the same time.
These images and past series are on my website: www.carolynoberst.com
Website: http://www.carolynoberst.com
