When Caroline was young, her family purchased a pony named Mario. He had no bloodline paperwork, so Caroline’s father requested they call him “Daddy’s Last Dollar” at horse shows. Mario taught Caroline and countless children how to ride, never needed shoes, and only had one cold while they owned him.

Over the years Caroline’s family had a handful of other horses; feisty Midge, sweet Dottie, and eventually too smart Fritz. It was Fritz who was Caroline’s fellow pea in a pod horse. A willing quarter horse out of reining stock, he took her all across in the little village of Corrales, NM and around the ditch-banks from the Rio Grande River.

Together Caroline and Fritz watched coyotes and roadrunners, found abandoned items aged in the desert sun, and spent many hours exploring anywhere and everywhere. Only once did he accidentally throw Caroline from the saddle and run home. All her artwork and passion is influenced from my time with each horse, but especially Fritz.

As a biology major at New Mexico State University in 2011 (to pursue an equine veterinary career), Caroline decided to take studio art classes on the side as extracurricular credits, just for the experience and fun. Many encouraging words came from professors and eventually, this accumulated into a Biology and Fine Art degree with a Biochemistry minor in 2015.

Extending her reach, Caroline began a Masters of Fine Art program at the University of Missouri. She was drawn to the philosophy and spirit of the professors who worked in ceramics and quickly switched from printmaking to ceramics within her first year and completed studies in 2021. Caroline credits her mentors, Bede Clarke and Joseph Pintz.

Years away from horses in college and post-college life has left Caroline with a longing that is only satiated with working in the ceramic studio. It reminds her of time in the stables. Not only with ceramics and horses is one left sweaty and covered in dirt by the end, but you similarly wrestle with something (or some horse) into the image or relationship you want. In both cases, it also shapes you.

Caroline’s recent body of work is comprised of small-scale tableaus of reflective horses. She focuses on the beauty in simple objects that are often weathered or aged which reminds her of my childhood exploring Corrales on horse-back. These works are designed to be in homes adorning bookshelves, table-tops, and wherever else one might find room for art and the reminder of beauty.

Outside the studio, Caroline has taught sculpture at Harvard Ceramics where she worked to encourage students to focus on a conversation with color, texture, and form and to approach problems in sculpture outside the standard ceramic routine that dominates the ceramic studio.

Caroline currently works at her growing home studio as well as at Pucker Gallery in Boston’s Back Bay which includes an amazing collection pots including the work of Shoji Hamada and Brother Thomas Bezanson.