Carey Watters

Carey Watters, is a Professor of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in printmaking and book arts. Watters has been working as a professional graphic designer since receiving her BFA in graphic design from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1999. Her paper works weave together concepts regarding feminism, historic map making, and religious and pagan symbolism. Her work is influenced by her travels to Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, and Sicily, Italy and her research of Byzantine architecture, design, and religious reliquaries.

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Artist Statement:

“My artwork is highly personal and mythical in nature. I work with ancient iconography--forgotten saints and anonymous korai--whose erasure over time serves as a metaphor for my own experience as a woman. 

In the broken postures and enigmatic faces of forgotten sculpted women, I find evidence of struggle and inner strength, and in my artwork, I re-animate these characters making them powerful heroines engaged in epic struggles. Their bodies are stenciled with designs and sewn patterns. Dangling red threads suggest spurting and dripping blood. Figures are encased in jagged edges that glow with luminous energy and protect like barbed wire. Curving and twisting lines unfold like tickertapes above women’s heads signifying intellect and authentic creativity. Empowered by weapons, one of my characters wields an arsenal of menacing clubs, while another bravely pilots a ship crossing a sea dotted with the decapitated heads of a legion of soldiers. 

Women are often shown blindfolded or with bandages applied to damaged eyes in my work and men cover their eyes, refusing to see the anatomy of women’s most intimate core (What Remains, 2022). Sculpted portraits of once powerful men appear hooded and masked, their gazes hidden behind the stylized façade of a fascist-style building, as they freely survey the world they control with impunity.