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86 Falls Road, Shelburne, Vermont 05482
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Carolyn Enz Hack

      I’m interested in Deep History, how the layers fit together, finding remnants of the past in the present and examining the accretion. Origination comes with the caveat that originality is built on what preceded. Charms, myth, sacrifice and ritual, we are creatures seeking the meaning of our being. My work uses the past as a touchstone for a path forward. Visual art, the oldest surviving remnant of our early worldview, beguiles with mysterious imagery often focusing attention on the miracle of regeneration through exaggerated form. The earliest examples exhibit a sense of time and self-awareness related through references to the observation of cycles that seemed to point to a renewal, if not of body, then at least to the essence that eventually was labeled the Soul. In my work I search the layers of history and reflect on the past to create totems of the compressed knowledge that lives just below our consciousness, deep inside our DNA. I work with many kinds of media but am most drawn to metal and mica, durable organic materials that come from the earth which can be dressed up with pigment for the term of several lifetimes, but
not for eternity. All of the skills that I developed as a theatre technician including sewing, welding, dying, patination, and weaving may be utilized to finish a piece.

The content of my work comes from the vast well of the subconscious, fed by experience, research, and a certain dream-state that flashes imagery in my head. The images are most often a challenge to realize given the brain’s ability to imagine complex forms. Inspiration for work can be found anywhere. I spend many hours viewing art and am acutely aware of natural and man-made forms. My challenge is to make work that transcends the catalog of art history and brings a new message to viewers. The message is packaged as an invitation to pause, ponder, and feel a
part of time unfolding.

I grew up on a farm in northwestern New Jersey and, after ten years in Seattle, settled in central Vermont where I sometimes collaborate with my husband Garrett Hack on fantastical furniture. I hold a BFA in theatrical design from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and spent years working in the theatre. In addition, while in Seattle, I studied oil painting at the Cornish College of the Arts.
My work has been exhibited nationally and featured in many publications including Sculpture Magazine, So Vermont Arts & Living, Art New England, Northern Woodlands, New Hampshire Home, and an upcoming issue of Design New England.

I am the recipient of two Vermont Arts Endowment Awards, a jury award from the 2016 Festival of Fine Arts Exhibition in Burlington, Vermont, and a painting merit award from the Chaffee Center for the Arts in Rutland, Vermont. I have received grants from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation, the Vermont Arts Council, and the Vermont Studio Center. My work is in many private collections as well as the Waskomium and the Hilton Garden Inn, both in Burlington, Vermont.

 




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