A Conversation with Caroompas

In advance of her new solo at Western Project, longtime Otis Fine Arts faculty member Carole Caroompas was featured in the Nov/Dec 07 issue of Artillery magazine.

The article by Ezrha Jean Black starts out as a light read- "As we enter the studio, we're greeted by one her (Caroompas') cats, a lion-sized marmalade named Arthur Lee, followed by a slightly smaller Asian blue named Lux..." but as the article moves toward a discussion of her current work, it morphs into a much denser exchange- "...an element of transcendence one step removed from Sartrean (and perhaps Hustonian) existentialism- the flip side of the absurd universe Maxine, Shannon, and the others swim through, the Huston jungle absurdly destined to become the Puerta Vallarta of Burton and Taylor: what for Caroompas anyway, appears to be the possibility, however fraught or contingent, of meaning."

Working through the whole article is worth it, you'll have a better sense of what drives Caroompas in her work and the physical space in which she makes it.

Her exhibition at Western Project remains up through December 22nd.

For another take on Caroompas and her work, here is an interview from earlier this year, done as a part of Otis' faculty profile series. Enjoy.