Cara Foster Karim

Washed Away, Mixed media

What are your earliest memories of being artistic? I’ve always loved to draw, from as early as I can remember. As a child I mostly drew people. I had a whole series of sort of comic strips of my imaginary life with twelve imaginary siblings and the adventures we had, with speech bubbles and all. They were really detailed and I kept it up for years! So fun.

When did art become a pursuit? About two years ago. I was at a transition point in my non-art related career and decided that now was the time to take the plunge and really go for it.

Are you self-taught or formally educated in visual art? In college I minored in studio art, specifically focusing on painting and sculpture. Most of my formal training comes from then. I’ve also taken several less formal classes since.

In what other ways are you involved in the local art community? I participate in Somerville Open Studios, which so far has been the best way I’ve been able to connect with other local artists.

What role do you think the artist plays in society? I think there can be a lot of different roles for artists in society. On one hand, just the act of making things, things that are amazing and beautiful, can give others so much delight, and that’s worth a lot. I also think artists have a unique chance to get people to look at something in a new way, to question their assumptions, and maybe feel a little uncomfortable, and that’s really important too.

A Tree Grows in Somerville, Mixed media

What medium do you currently work in and how did you choose this medium?
For about the past year I’ve been primarily working in mixed media paper collage. I’ve worked in oils for years but I had this nagging idea in the back of my head for a specific painting involving collaged newspaper clippings. I tried it and it was completely frustrating and not at all how I had planned it but I fell in love with the process and now I’m hooked. I LOVE it when paintings have a mind of their own and go a completely different direction from how I planned.

What is your creative process? Where are you finding ideas for your art these days? Right now my brain is chock full of ideas that are tumbling out, basically more variations on mixed media urban landscapes using newspaper. Often, I’ll have an idea, almost a metaphor (like a bridge) and use google image search to get ideas and real world examples. Other times I’ll be out walking somewhere and the sunlight will be at a certain angle and hit a building or a tree i’ve seen a hundred times in a new way and I’ll take a photo and save it for an idea for later. So then when I’m in a dry spell without ideas, I have a backlog of visual notes to work from.

How do you choose your subject matter? Is there a reoccurring theme that carries throughout your work? Almost everything I’ve created relates to place and space. Usually the built environment but nature as well. My non-art professional background is in urban planning and affordable housing and I have an ongoing interest in celebrating and building community by engaging with the physical spaces around us. I believe that the people who make up a city or a neighborhood put their stamp on the physical space, both by literally building and creating new structures but also just by being a community, being connected, and thus giving the physical space meaning. My most recent work uses newspaper clippings in different languages to depict urban landscapes; to represent and celebrate the ways that immigrants from around the world are part of our community.

In your opinion, what’s your best/favorite piece you’ve made? It’s hard to choose–I really love a lot of my recent mixed media ones. I think “Joy in this City” is my favorite because it was the first collaged painting that felt like it really worked–there was just an effortless flow to creating that piece that still makes me happy whenever I see it.

We Built This City, Mixed media

What is one of your artistic goals? I really want to become more comfortable with more abstract and non representational pieces. I’m trying to push myself in this area but it’s been a slow process.

What’s your favorite place to see art? I love going to the portrait galleries at the MFA with one of my closest friends–we try to imagine the personalities of all the subjects of the paintings and come up with backstories for them! I also just love walking down the halls at Vernon Street Studios in Somerville.

What living artists are you inspired by? I wish I could remember! There was an amazing abstract city scape painting that I saw once at Vernon Street Studios which has stuck in my head ever since and has indirectly inspired a lot of my work but I neglected to note who the artist was at the time and I’ve never been able to track it down again.

Do you own any art by other artists? Yes! Although the art I buy is very very different from what I create. I bought a print of a scene from Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”, where text from the book is used to create the picture. And my favorite, an original drawing that a friend created; depicting two Klingons from Star Trek as cats. I don’t think she even made it with the intention of selling it but I begged to her let me buy it!

Do you have any shows coming up? I’ll participating in Somerville Open Studios on May 4th and 5th!

See more Cara!

Website: art.carafosterkarim.com
Instagram: @cara_paints
Facebook: fosterkarimpainting