Caroline Creeden
Caroline Creeden is an interdisciplinary artist from Maryland. She has a MFA in Studio Arts at Towson University, BFA in Fibers and a MA in Teaching from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Most recently she was awarded the Maker-Creator Fellowship at the Winterthur Museum and Gardens to study historical wallpaper, textiles, and ceramic transferware. She was named a Langenberg Legacy Fellow for civic engaged art. Previously, Caroline received the John D. Rockefeller Library research fellowship at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to study the role of oyster shells in Colonial American life, and the France-Merrick Fellowship to run an environmental arts program in a Baltimore City school.
Caroline has experience teaching K-12 and higher education visual arts courses. Her work focuses on themes of memory, history, ancestry, material culture, and the natural world. Outside of art and teaching, Caroline is a long distance runner, lover of dogs, and keen gardener.
Artist Statement
As a child, I played in front of ancestral portraits in my grandparents’ living room. I was surrounded by the memories and stories of those people who watched me as I lay on the carpet playing with building blocks and figurines. Those early memories and experiences focusing on ancestry and history created a passion for storytelling and preservation. Working in traditional craft materials, fiber and ceramics, and other new media, allow me to explore ideas of the maker, the user, and the story the objects tells.
I consider ways of preserving objects and memories through fiber techniques, which hold memories of the maker and the user. Clothing retains the memory of a person: their blood, sweat, tears, scent, and the form of their body long after the individual has left it behind. It also retains our connections to people, our genealogy, our history, and our loved ones.