Caitlin Teal Price, a contemporary artist celebrated for her distinctive approach, seamlessly integrates photography and drawing to create one-of-a-kind works on paper. Her artistic process involves capturing light through photography and using it as a compelling backdrop for her drawings. What sets Price apart is her unconventional method, opting for an x-acto blade to meticulously scrape away the pigment of the photographic background, revealing the raw white paper beneath—a reductive drawing technique standing in contrast to the additive nature of traditional drawing.
Price’s creative philosophy revolves around an exploration of spirit—the intangible essence of life sensed more than seen. She believes that spirit reveals itself most in the routine and mundane tasks of daily life, where the existence of spirit and magic becomes pronounced.
The heart of Price’s innovative approach lies in her Scratch Drawings, a captivating fusion of photography and drawing. The photographic ground she employs features images of sunlight filtering through the windows of her home, with beams of light serving as a visual manifestation of the spirit inherent in the predictability of everyday life.
The drawing process itself is a reductive act, each mark delicately scraped away with precision using an x-acto blade, gradually revealing the white paper underneath the pigment of the photographic print. The etched shapes, inspired by scenes of daily life, coupled with laborious etched patterning, echo the repetitive nature of routine and mundane tasks. Scratch Drawings become a visual narrative that unveils the hidden enchantment within life’s ordinary moments.
Price elaborates on her technique: “Scratch Drawings reveal the hidden enchantment within life’s ordinary moments to make the ethereal tangible by connecting the spiritual and magical to the everyday.” Her unique fusion of photography and reductive drawing transforms the commonplace into the extraordinary, creating a bridge between the tangible and the intangible, the mundane and the magical.
