Caroline Jablonowski

Describe the work you submitted for merits.

One of the pieces I submitted to the Merit Competition is a piece I made in my Drawing 2 class with Ed Charbonneau that really changed the way I made art going forward. The way I saw the interaction of light and shadow. The other three works I submitted, and my current work in general, lies at an intersection between science, queerness, and ex-Catholicism. I often use these topics as lenses to look at and examine each other; to learn more about myself but also about my surroundings and my place in my surroundings. Deep Ecology Theory and Holobiont Theory have inspired so much of my work and my understanding of the world I live in, so it only seems right to make art in that context!

Why did you decide to come to MCAD?

I've been an artist my whole life and have been creating things for as long as I can remember. My first dream job when I was little was a "stained-glass painter." I wanted to be a doctor for a while, which is where my love for science flourished, but I ultimately decided it wasn't for me. I initially came to MCAD as a comics major; I was a huge MCR fan in high school (still am, proudly!) and was so inspired by Gerard Way's comics and artwork, and dreamed of making comics as amazing as his. But after one drawing class, I knew I wanted to teach. And after one painting class with John Gaunt, I knew I was a painter. And all of the things I used to want to be still show up in my artwork today!

What are your plans for your senior year? And beyond?

Next year I'm hoping to expand on the vein I'm working in now, with science and queerness and ex-Catholicism, but also to follow my brush if it takes me to other ideas to explore! Beyond—I have an in-progress paper I would like to get peer-reviewed and published, I'm hoping to get my MFA in Europe, more specifically Italy, sometime in the next decade, and would like to work as a teaching artist in high schools for some time, but I ultimately would like to teach drawing and painting courses at MCAD because I love the intimate community here.

Favorite thing about college life (so far)?

My favorite thing about college life is absolutely the freedom of expression! Getting to decorate my own space, buy my own clothes; the things that were more restricted when you're in high school where there are more rules like dress code. Anyway, that's just a roundabout way of saying dyeing my hair and getting a lip piercing!

What's the best thing you've got from MCAD's free shelf?

I could go on forever with this question! I've found a lot of great clothes and art books and art supplies on the free shelf over the years, but my absolute favorite item has been a copy of A Man, A Can, A Plan by David Joachim from Men's Health. I think it's an artistic masterpiece. It's a cookbook filled with terrible recipes, targeting men, die-cut in the shape of a can, on super thick pages like you would give to a child first learning to read. There's an entire section dedicated to beer. It's so over-the-top that it almost feels subversive, which is definitely not its intended purpose. It always makes me laugh though!

What inspires you?

Looking out the window to see a very unique type of lighting, the way that every molecule between subject and viewer interact with each other to create an atmosphere, both small and large urban gardens, light and shadow, reflections and refractions, ecology, biology, medicine, radiology, spirituality, psychology, soil, identity, the physicality of my materials, and the desire to ask questions.

Do you have a favorite piece you've made? Describe it!

My favorite piece I've ever made is called Reinvention, which is made from dirt, cold wax medium, charcoal powder and vine charcoal, liquin, and moss. To me this piece is an exploration of my identity through a lens of ecological succession. One of my friends asked me a while back, "What does your queerness mean to you?" which up until then had been a hard question for me to answer, even less put into words—something I hadn't confronted before. Once I was able to verbalize my understanding of myself, I realized that as a queer person, at least for myself, my identity is made up almost entirely of dichotomies, rather than simply being in a space between binaries. Everything and nothing. Otherworldly, yet extremely human. Existing without boundaries. For me, dirt most accurately embodies these dichotomies. It is one substance and trillions of substances simultaneously. At a point where I was adding too many materials to the piece I began feeling lost and confused, so I brought it back to stage one: dirt and wax. This process, like necessary forest fires that release nutrients for new growth, felt like the rejuvenating form of destruction of the old self I might have been holding onto for too long. The charcoal added later became a symbol of that sort of chemical reaction.

Anything you're obsessed with at the moment?

Oh, I'm SO glad you asked! Deep Ecology Theory, Holobiont Theory, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Catholic art, Cangiante and Cangiantismo painting styles, frogs, weird facts about Michelangelo's life, plants, recipe-hoarding, and iced coffee.

Who would you thank for where you are now?

My family, for providing me with art supplies throughout my life and putting up with my creative messes and rambles; and my friends and classmates, for their loving feedback and criticisms on my work so that I continue to improve and for all the late-night homework support groups.

And so many of my teachers and professors: Mrs. Seaman, for having the most fun projects an elementary-school aged artist could imagine; Mrs. Sistek, for giving me those scented Mr. Sketch markers in 2nd grade (sorry my brother left them all uncapped, but I still have the set I replaced them with before they changed the packaging)—I drew with them all the time! Koch, for letting me go way too over the top on every healthcare assignment involving color-coding or drawing; Ed, for teaching me to work with my intuition instead of against it; Gen, for their emphasis on the importance of the encounter and impact of an artwork and constant excitement that keeps me going; John, for encouraging me to always ask questions and how to paint in a way that answers them; Abbi, for their biomimicry lecture and their endless enthusiasm that revitalized my love for sciences; Kim, for showing me that painting is definitely at the base of Maslow's hierarchy of needs; Anna, for pushing me to write passionately and always letting me change topics at the last possible second; Matthew, for urging me to keep writing, despite creative writing not being my forte; Melissa, for so much consideration on how we interact with human and nonhuman beings; Howard, for reminding me that my art should live up to my writing about my art; Regan, for finally getting me to look beyond the technicalities of my artwork; and Ben, for helping me work in ways that are uniquely my own.

<3 Caroline