Interview: Caroline McAuliffe
Caroline McAuliffe is an interdisciplinary artist. She spends her time creating woven wearables and narrative scenes that explore folkloric familial nostalgia. She blends life and art through costume and play. Caroline holds an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute and currently works as an arts educator in New York City. Her work has appeared in group shows both nationally and internationally, including the Montclair Art Museum of New Jersey, Children’s Museum of Arts in Manhattan, Kyoto Shibori Museum of Japan, and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in South Korea. She is a finalist for the 2023 Procreate Mother Art prize, 2023 Women’s United Art Prize: Photography, and a Semifinalist for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Her work appears on the cover of the 2024 novel Choose This Now by Nicole Haroutunian. She is a founding member of the Mother Creatrix Collective, a group of mother artists in New York who support each other's artistic practices by creating exhibition opportunities. Caroline currently lives and creates in Brooklyn with her wife, Karen, and kid, Sal.
Her work speaks through masks and textiles of surreal lands of masked creatures. The masks, or wearables, are made of scavenged materials ranging in process from crochet, knit, sewn, or woven textiles. She draws upon her own cultural histories of mask wearers, elements of power and kink, and historical scenes of concealment. She wants to be hidden and completely present, vulnerable and protected while playing with textiles and lore.
Currently she is making art about the themes and myths of motherhood and her desires and discomforts within the role. Objects of Play is based on the amorphous entity that is a mother, and how she engages with the kink and the “stuffness” of toddlerhood.
Read our interview with Caroline below!
Installation view of Lounging Mothers, Digital print on crushed velour, custom wooden floating shelf, 24 x 34 x 5 inches, 2024
PP: Walk us through a typical day in your studio or generally through your process to make new work.
CM: As my life has evolved, my work has evolved. Becoming a parent has been a huge creative act and also a monopolizer of my time and energy. I work steadily in pockets of time when possible making masks and creating photographs from this new position in life. For me it’s fluid both in location, task, and time spent. My time might be spent invested in material play with my child as this fuels my latest work, playing with blocks on my own, creating sketches for future photos with my child’s toys, crocheting new headpieces, or designing fabric prints of my photos or my child’s art. It’s a wide range.
Blóm 1, Digital print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, custom frame, 17 x 13 x 1.5 inches
Fringe for Salvatore, Grandma’s arm chair upholstery fabric, fringe, velvet trim, gold lamé, thread , metal armature, wooden headpiece, 2022-2024
PP: What motivates you to make art?
CM: I feel strongly about making artwork about the mothering experience that displays my family, a two-mom family caregiving for our now toddler. There is so much to say and share from this position and it feels like I am speaking to a much larger audience with this current work. I’m more driven to keep going after becoming a parent. It's really nice to be able to collaborate with my family in this way. Salvatore, our child, is not always a willing participant, but loves playing with all the materials and is a constant source of inspiration for the work.
I’m very attracted to texture and color. As a former painter and printmaker turned sculptural textile and photo artist, I have always been in love with the contradictory nature of working in two mediums at the same time. I love surface quality and working with my hands. I create photo narratives with lots of visual texture and have started to print my photographs on fabrics to play with light and physical textures. This dual focus draws inspiration from the everyday and imaginative worlds. The wearables are inspired first by the material itself. I am drawn to upholstery cord, trim, and fringes and scavenged rope.
Working with children and materials is especially inspiring to me. I feel lucky to work with young children daily as a studio teacher, and I learn a lot from them.
PP: What is one goal you are aiming to achieve this year for your art practice?
CM: I would appreciate having more eyes on my work. I’d love more critiques and conversations with other artists as I create this new body of work. I am also focused on building towards a solo show in 2025.
Bundinn 1, Digital print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, custom frame, 9 x 7 x 1.5 inches
PP: Is community something you value in your practice? Why or why not?
CM: Community means a lot to me. As a parent, my world can feel small. My connection to the queer and art communities can sometimes feel even smaller. I am looking for new ways to find support, community, and connection with artists during this new phase of my life.
Joining online networks like Art Mamas and Paradice Palase has made me feel connected. Taking a crit course with Vantage Points has helped me to continue the practice of studio critique. The Mother Creatrix Collective, a group of 7 artist mothers and curators, has been the best support over the last year. We have created 3 shows together and support each other's studio practice and parenthood journey.
PP: Who is a current muse for your practice? Could be anyone fictional or real, dead or alive!
CM: Salvatore, my kid is my constant muse. Our summer together has been a residency in toddlerhood. We inspire each other through material play. My studio is in our home, and my materials are often available for Sal. There has been lots of binding the house with rope and wrapping of bodies in fabric. And I’ve found the same desire to play with Sal’s toys. I am so impacted by living amongst toys, playing with them, arranging them and cleaning them up multiple times a day. These play materials have become the scavenged materials for my latest work.
To learn more about Caroline’s work, see her Instagram and Website